Page:Elementary Chinese - San Tzu Ching (1900).djvu/48

30 more than a thousand years B.C. Chinese houses are as far as possible duly oriented, facing the south. See.

Pei was originally composed of two men, back to back. How it came to mean north is not clear. It is now classed under radical 匕 pi a spoon.

Yüeh see.

Hsi was originally composed of a bird roosting on a tree, which was thought sufficient to suggest the time for roosting when the sun is in the western sky; hence, by an aphetic process on a gigantic scale, the west. It is now classed under radical 襾 hsia to cover.

Tung is explained as 日 jih the sun among the 木 mu trees as radical (lines, ). The east is the place of honour, and 東家 tung chia is the master of a house. The phrase 東西 tung hsi east-west means a thing, and it is an insult to say that a man is not a thing, implying that he is only raw material.

Tz'ŭ see.

Ssŭ see.

Fang see.

Ying is composed of 心 hsin heart as radical, with an old form