Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/71

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Shu was originally composed of 聿 lü or yü a stylus (line 124), with 者 chê (line 49) as phonetic, and meant to make known. This was subsequently contracted to the modern character and classed under 曰 yüeh to speak as radical. [The Four Books form the first portion of the Confucian Canon and are learnt by heart by all candidates who hope to do anything at the public examinations. They are enumerated in lines 115—130. See also line 135.]

115.	論	語	者	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	There is the Lun Yü,
	Lun⁴	yü³	chê³
	Discuss	speech	one

Lun is composed of 言 yen words and an important phonetic (lines 96, 116).

Yü is composed of 言 yen words as radical, and 吾 wu I (吾 wu five and 口 k'ou mouth) as phonetic, and means talk.

Chê see line 49. [The Lun Yü, Discourses or Analects, contains practically all we really know of the sayings and doings of Confucius. It is ascribed by the Chinese to the immediate disciples of the Sage.]

116.	二	十	篇	$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$	in twenty sections.
	Erh⁴	shih²	p'ien¹
	Two	ten	tablet

Erh is the number of earth, though in 五 wu five (line 15) it is made to do duty for heaven and earth. It is the first of the female numbers, and represents the mating of 一 i one. See title and line 45.

Shih see line 45.

P'ien is composed of 竹 chu bamboo (line 87) as radical, with 扁 pien flat as phonetic. It means the flat bamboo tablet on which books were written with a stylus (line 124) before the