Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/38

20 A.D. 208, a descendant of Confucius in the 20th generation.

Ssŭ is supposed to be a picture of quartering (see ).

Sui is composed of 步 pu to step, to walk, and 戌 hsü a horary character as phonetic. It originally meant 木星 mu hsing wood-star (lines, ), i.e. the planet Jupiter, also known to the Chinese as the year-star from its revolution in twelve years which was reckoned as one great year. It is now colloquially used as a year of one's life or age, and is classed under radical 止 chih to stop.

Nêng see. Jang is composed of 言 yen words and 襄 hsiang which is an important phonetic (see ).

Li is composed of 木 mu wood as radical and 利 li sharp as phonetic. [The story runs that when K'ung Jung at four years of age was asked why he chose all the small pears and left the bigger ones for the rest of the family he replied, "I am a small boy, so I take the small pears." Eitel wrongly translates "was able to yield up his pears (to his brothers)."]

T'i to behave as a younger brother is a verbal sense developed from the original sound and signification of the character read = younger brother. For convenience' sake the former is sometimes written 悌, with 心 hsin heart as radical.

Yü see.

Chang means to grow, one grown, an elder. The original word