art of chinese

on vacation

I'll be on vacation until June 30.

master, zhu

Zhu(3), master, also used for 'emperor,' is another character based on the character for jade, yu, meaning something precious that has descended from heaven. I think this is interesting because it implies that our leaders are 'heaven-sent' or established by the will of God.  This may ultimately be true, but only in one sense, namely that between the apparent randomness of events and their repercussions, seen by some as 'fate,' we end up getting 'who we get' in these positions.  The danger lies in reifying these results, in deifying our leaders and bowing down to them out of anything more than respect - I believe in demonstrating respect for those leaders whom we do genuinely respect - people can get really crazy over projecting divinity onto their leaders.  Cases in point: Hitler, Alexander, Napoleon, Stalin.  Maybe it's the American in me, but I want to be able to vote someone out of office if I don't like what he stands for.

An alternate breakdown of the character puts a 'cover' over the 'earth,' suggesting that our leaders are here to protect us.  Again, we are at the mercy of our leaders as to whether they are indeed protecting us, or rather exploiting us.  In either case, a democracy seems preferable to me over a monarchy, dynasty or oligarchy.  But that's just a personal note.

Speaking of pesonal notes: I've decided not to try to include all the incidental characters on these pages, because I've discovered they don't show up anyway on certain browsers, and they're a lot of extra trouble. 

It's interesting that if you add the radical for 'man' to the left of this character the word becomes zhu(3) 'to live, to reside, to stay.'  If you add the radical for 'hand' it means  zhu(3) 'to lean upon' - so it would seem there is a definite connotation of 'permanence' to this character.  A look at the history of chinese dynasties reinforces this notion that the 'master' or 'emperor' is meant to be a permanent fixture.

Zhu (3), as used here for 'master' had the original meaning of 'host', then went on to mean 'owner' as in 'slave-owner' and 'master.'  All the compound words using this zhu imply the idea of 'the chief': zhubi, editor-in-chief; zhuban, sponsor; zhudao, leading, dominant, guiding; zhudong, initiative; zhudui, home-team; zhufeng, highest peak in a mtn range; zhufu, housewife, hostess; zhugen, taproot; zhuguan, person repsonsible; zhujiang, chief commander; zhujiao, bishop; zhujue, protagonist; zhuke, major course; zhuliang, girder; zhuliu, main stream or current; zhuyan, lead actor; zhuyi, doctrine; zhuyin, keynote.

gold jin

金 - jīn – gold, or any metal - includes the same basic radicals as 玉 yù, jade, with the addition of a little 'roof' or 'cover,' and two drops.  This would preserve the notion of something precious and beautiful that is hidden, and appears in small quantities.  Dr. Wieger writes: "According to chinese geology, the metals are born from the earth," hence 土  tǔ forms the base of the character, while, jí -亼, meaning to ‘gather three sides, or to assemble’ provides the uppermost horizontal stroke and small two-stroked hood or 'cover'. 

Another possible interpretation is that the original character was composed of 土  tǔ earth, with four nuggets of gold, and two of the nuggets fused to form the uppermost horizontal stroke.  The character is capped by a  ‘cover,’ indicating that the whole is concealed under the earth.

Jīn can also mean money, gongs, gold, silver or other treasures, or a surname.  Some compound words include: jingangshi, diamond; jingui, tortoise (valued in chinese medicine for its shell's ability to nourish back Essence in human beings); jinhuang, golden (note the use of 'huang,' our previously studied character for 'yellow'); jinju, kumquat; jinqianbao, leopard; jinsique, canary; jinxing, venus; jinyinhua, honeysuckle (another commonly used chinese medical herb, literally meaning gold-and-silver flower, and one which contains a secret nectar inside).

jade, yu

 玉 Yù, Jade, contains the radicals for yī ( 一 ) one, and tǔ(土) earth, with a dash or 'drop'.  It is a homophone of  雨 yǔ, rain, and according to my teacher, Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallee, both indicate something precious that has descended from heaven to earth.  Jade is perfect and beautiful, and is used as an adjective to imply something that is of the most supreme quality.  Jade is considered to be a condensation of the liquid essence of heaven, a kind of 'sperm' of heaven, found congealed within the earth.  It is the most precious of all materials. 

Yù (jade) is part of several different expressions for corn or maize: yùjiao, yùshushu, and yùmi.  The moon is sometimes called the Jade Hare, yùtu.  The expression 'jade and stone burned together,' yù-shi ju fen, means 'destruction of good and bad together.'  Yù Huang Da Di is the Jade Emperor, the supreme deity of daoism, according to "A Chinese-English Dictionary." (1981)  (the big jade green dictionary).  By the way, I must apologize for not having the correct pinyin fonts yet.

We will see in subsequent characters, how slight changes to this character, yù, create words that are related in connotation but not in denotation.  The chinese are fond of homophones, characters that sound alike but mean something different, yet have some subtle resonance.  In addition, we often see relations in meaning among characters that resemble one another visually, although in such cases the sound of the word will usually change.   We will see that when we get to the next character, zhu - master.

This kind of inter-relationship among characters will help us to understand the value-system inherent in chinese culture. Yù is an example of a homophone, and we can see the relation in that both 'rain' (yǔ) and 'jade' (yù) are precious essences that fall from heaven.  Next, we will see examples of similar characters with different sounds, but related meanings, in the upcoming two characters.

rain, yu

At the top of the character is a short horizontal bar representing heaven (the radical is yi, one).  Below that is a structure that looks like our cartoon-version of a house, and that's the radical for borders, and here it means 'a cloud.'  The central stroke represents downward motion, and of course there are four raindrops.  Rain is a divine blessing, that's why I colored it purple.

Love, Ren

This is the confucian virtue of 'benevolence, mutuality, and reciprocity.'  The radical for 'human' (ren) is on the left, it is an abstraction of two legs and a body, and on the right are two short dashes, like an equal-sign, signifying 'two' (er). Meaning, that which is the proper relation between two people. 

yellow, huang

HUANG, 'yellow'  - We're starting with Huang because it was one of the first characters I could relate and explain easily to other people.  From top down we see the radical for cao, 'grass or grain', the character for field (which looks like four boxes), and at the bottom the radical for 'eight', ba, which also means 'many.'  So the charcter for yellow is basically a picture of endless fields of grain, something that can be seen in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Nebraska and many other places in the wide world.  'Yellow,' I suppose like 'gold' has overtones of 'prosperity and abundance' to it, (hence the number 'eight,' ba, is part of it), perhaps because it is the color of the sun.  So many of our forebears were sun-worshippers around the world.  I've tinted this character just a little bit green, to get that color of new grass, that yellow-green shade.

art of chinese

Welcome to the 'Art of Chinese.'  On this weblog I'll be sharing my study of chinese characters along with my original hand and computer-generated calligraphy of the characters.  The main text used on the blog will be 'Chinese Characters' by Dr. L. Wieger, S.J., supplemented from my notes as a student and practitioner of chinese medicine.