Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/22

4 It is not an authorised rhyme to shan in, but is sufficient to produce the jingle which is such an important aid to memory. [Lines and  are the ipsissima verba of Confucius, and form the chief dogma in Confucian ethics. It was vigorously upheld by Mencius, and opposed by Hsün K'uang of the 3rd cent. B.C. who held that the nature of man is radically evil, and also by Yang Hsiung who taught that it is neither one nor the other but a mixture of the two.]

Kou is composed, under its modern form, of 艸 ts'ao vegetation (艹 in composition) as radical, and 句 chü crooked as phonetic. It commonly means if, if only, etc.

Pu is supposed to be a picture of a bird which is circling in the air and will not come down, the upper line representing the sky.

Chiao is composed of 孝 hsiao filial piety as phonetic and an obsolete radical meaning to tap.

[Every translator so far has made the same serious error of rendering the 苟 kou in this line as though it were simply "if." It is elliptical however for 苟且 kou ch'ieh wrongly, improperly etc., as carefully stated in Ho Hsing-ssŭ's commentary.]

Hsing see.

Nai was originally a picture of vapour struggling forth. It is now a conjunctive and disjunctive particle, with other and more unusual values, demonstrative and possessive.

Ch'ien is composed of the walking radical and a phonetic which