Tê is composed of the double-man radical (line 67), with a phonetic. It seems to have originally meant a dry measure holding about a pint. It was used for 得 tê to get, to attain; and it is just possible that from the sense of attainment, achievement, it came to mean the exemplification of virtue in good works. [Its phonetic is a corruption of 直 chih upright and 心 hsin heart, and is explained by "the external is obtained from others, the internal from oneself."]
122. | 說 | 仁 | 義 | and expound charity and duty towards one's neighbour. | |
Shuo1 | jen2 | i4 | |||
Expound | charity | duty |
Shuo is composed of 言 yen words as radical, and 兌 tui which originally meant to speak, and now means to weigh, as phonetic. Its earliest meaning was to expound; now it is the common colloquial word for speak. Also read shui4 and yüeh; see line 206.
Jen see line 69.
I see line 14.
123. | 作 | 中 | 庸 | The Chung Yung was written | |
Tso4 | chung1 | yung1 | |||
Make | middle | course |
Tso is composed of 人 jen man as radical, and 乍 cha which originally meant to stop, and now means suddenly, etc. It covers all kinds of doing and making, even to writing a book (lines 153, 326). [The Peking dialect, here as elsewhere, fails to exhibit the true phonetic. Cha should be tsa.]
Chung see line 64.
Yung is composed of 庚 kêng to change, as phonetic, with 用 yung to use, as radical, which in turn was composed of 卜 pu to divine and 中 chung the middle. "Get your middle," says one luminary of the 1st cent. A.D., a not unworthy prototype of the famous Mrs. Glasse, "and then you can use it." It originally