Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/47

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The San Tzŭ Ching
29

now classed, and 匕 pi a spoon. It originally meant to stop; and from this sense of arrestation it is an easy transition to the modern demonstrative value of the character. See line 273.

Ssŭ see title.

Shih see line 30.


60. revolve without ceasing.
Yün4 pu1 ch'iung2
Revolve not exhaust


Yün is composed of the walking radical with 軍 chün military as phonetic. The latter is a corruption of 車 ch'ê or chü a chariot, and 勹 pao to enclose (under the old form it completely surrounds the chariot), suggesting a military encampment. Yün was originally pronounced wên, as still in the Canton dialect, and meant to change one's abode, to transport. Later on, from change it came to mean luck, fortune.

Pu see line 5.

Ch'iung is composed of 穴 hsüeh a cave as radical, over 躬 kung body as phonetic. It originally meant extreme, limit; and later, without resource, poor.


61. We speak of north and south,
Yüeh4 nan2 pei3
Speak south north


Yüeh see line 57.

Nan is composed of an old word meaning abundant vegetation (q.d. the south), with 羊 yang sheep inserted as phonetic. It is now classed under radical 十 shih ten (line 45). The south is the standard point, as the north with us, of the mariner's compass, which has been known to the Chinese since the 12th cent. A.D., and is said to have been developed from a legendary "south-pointing chariot" given to tribute-bearing envoys from Tongking