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U N
sa ka n
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
「Captured air」as the natural spirit essence of the atmosphere surrounding Earth and held by gravity, something we cannot live without (the air, with oxygen for animals and carbon dioxide for plants, that is). Thick air at sea level, for example, contains more essential oxygen as does the atmosphere at the top of a mountain where the air is thinner. Certainly most life at the planet's surface would not prosper without the Earth's atmosphere, and anyone「in isolation, not at liberty」with others in the same constraints ought to work harmoniously or all will soon expire, it would seem.
HARMONY is a relationship characterized by a lack of conflict, and while generally today thought of as a good ideal, harmony is not necessarily the result of all good or benign influences—a harmony of evil can and does occur quite often in the world, with all participants not in conflict about a common goal or purpose…「spirit, mind of captives, slaves」: most all prisoners feel rage and anger in the same way, that is, they harmonize and agree with one another about life's unfairness. See the similar glyphs. Mercifully, the human body becomes accustomed to horrendous stench (and pleasant scents, too) after constant exposure, making it less unbearable by HARMONIZING with it. Unihan and EDRDG given meanings are modern usages.
External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: heavy atmosphere
Japanese EDRDG: life-giving influences of nature, spirit of harmony, prosperity
Unihan extended: life giving influences of nature; spirit of harmony; prosperity
Always keep in mind that these glyphs most likely were originally designed by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles for their own entertainment
(see 籒 for that),
representing Chinese society many thousands of years ago, but intended NOT as a written or spoken language when created.
If these glyphs had been intended for language use, the sages could not have possibly designed a worse system!
Is it truly possible that all these glyphs started out as off-color jokes and puzzles?
Yes! It is, and often with multiple correct answers to each riddle, the same as is true today.
Sex had no shame in ancient China.
Why would it?
But, have there been necessary rewrites and altered explanations of the original elemental meanings over the centuries?
No one is suggesting these glyphs depict contemporary life in China, Japan, or anywhere else.
This site describes glyph meanings, not people.
These glyphs however, describe many and various things, including people, long before there were any notions of becoming politically incorrect.
The question to be answered is, should these glyphs continue being used, by anyone, anywhere, for expressing language?
(More...)
Despite how seemingly bad our human existence is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better?
Or could they have been worse?
By the way, with a limited number of the same elements used by the sages again and again to form these glyphs,
you should expect to find the same explanations again and again, as tedious as that may become, and as an inherent trait of any lexicon.
This site explains multiple meanings of glyphs ignored or censored by other sources, generally as being too embarrassing to admit today.
Primal elements
Chinese usage: 2 entries
Related glyphs [ Toggle font ]
Similar glyphs with related meanings: 28 entries
- Glyph.08583
- Strokes: 14
- other
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This publication has included material from the MDBG free online English to Chinese dictionary files in accordance with the license provisions of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
This publication has included material from the JMdict (EDICT, etc.) dictionary files in accordance with the license provisions of the Electronic Dictionaries Research Group.
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