Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/100



K'ao is composed of 老 lao old abbreviated, and an obsolete phonetic. It originally meant old; then it came to signify a dead father; now it is the common term for examination.

Shih is composed of three 十 shih tens, thirty years being the Chinese estimate of the length of a generation of men. It is also used in the sense of mankind, the world.

Hsi is 糸 ssŭ silk, with a dash at the top, and means to tie, to bind. [Eitel translates this line by "Searching their chapters on genealogy and their family records." But hsi has no such meaning as "records."]

Chih see lines,.

Chung see.

Shih see. [Eitel continues "So as to know both the end and the beginning of history."]

Tzŭ see.

Hsi is composed of 兮 hsi separation of vapour, later a particle of emphasis (an old radical), with 義 i as phonetic. It originally meant vapour, but here stands for the name of the legendary Emperor 伏 Fu (or 庖 P'ao) 羲 Hsi, who reigned B.C. 2953—2838, and is said to have developed the Diagrams