smoothly down the stream. [Eitel wrongly makes the bond one-sided, "And finally, there are husband and wife, the latter in submission."]
| 57. | 曰 | 春 | 夏 | We speak of spring and summer, | |
| Yüeh4 | ch'un1 | hsia4 | |||
| Speak | spring | summer |
Yüeh under its old form was supposed to represent breath issuing from the mouth, q.d. speech.
Ch'un is composed of 日 jih sun as radical, and a contraction in which 艸 ts'ao vegetation was once conspicuous. It is also used figuratively in the sense of joyous, pleasant.
Hsia is a contraction of 頁 yeh head, an obsolete word for hands, and an obsolete radical which is here said to refer to the feet. It originally meant an inhabitant of the Middle Kingdom, probably from the name of a dynasty which ruled China from B.C. 2205 to B.C. 1818.
| 58. | 曰 | 秋 | 冬 | we speak of autumn and winter. | |
| Yüeh4 | ch'iu1 | tung1 | |||
| Speak | autumn | winter |
Yüeh see line 57.
Ch'iu is composed of 禾 ho grain, as radical, and 火 huo fire, suggesting the sense of harvest-time.
Tung is composed of 冫 ping an old word for ice, now used as a radical, and a contraction of 終 chung end, sc. the end of the year when ice comes. The modern word for ice is 冰 ping, formed by the simple addition of water (line 65).
| 59. | 此 | 四 | 時 | These four seasons | |
| Tz'ŭ3 | ssŭ4 | shih2 | |||
| This | four | time |
Tz'ŭ is composed of 止 chih to stop, under which radical it is
