牀 bed; floor; alcove (a place for beds) 爿,木,

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MingLiU:

Mincho:

Gothic:

牀

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On-yomi [ Toggle rōmaji ]

ショウ　･　ソウ
SHO　U　･　SO　U

Kun-yomi

ゆか
yu　ka

Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]

爿

ショウ,ソウ,× a piece of wood or a woody, thin strips, soil in stripes, chopped into pieces, thin slices, flakes, to carve thinly, one-sided, on one side, positioned to one side, half of a whole; split wood or bamboo, wooden plank, stiff wood, sick wood, deathbed, sickbed, stretcher, bier (for carrying the dead)

　ERECT ROD UP or DOWN and RIGHT-ANGLED GNARLY BADLY BENT
　

木

ボク,モク,き,こ～ wood, woody stalk, stem, wooden, a woody, tree, implanted, simple, simpleton, coffin, encased death, unfeeling, numb

　TWISTING a TAUT HEAD
…or: SCREWING EMISSIONS
…or: HAND on TAUT ROD
　

Meanings of elements

DEATHBED, SICKBED, STRETCHER, BIER FOR CARRYING THE DEAD, THIN SLICE, FLAKE, TO CARVE THINLY, HALF OF A WHOLE, SPLIT and WOODY

Formerly, the sick were placed on「wooden beds」(a split「tree」or plank) and cared for in a separate「cavern.」A long wooden plank (or a split half of a tree) used as a SICKBED, or as a BED for nobility. Normal people slept directly on the FLOOR, or on mats (many still do). This glyph now refers to a small rectangular recessed area in a wall, easily closed off with a curtain or movable partition, used for placing sickbeds formerly with a hard WOODEN FLOOR and not mats, which is why this glyph now has both meanings of BED and of FLOOR (tatami mats are not considered to be flooring. Japanese tatami rooms do not have「floors」they have tatami, naturally). This rectangular inset or ALCOVE is called the TOKONOMA (「area of floor/ bed」) in Japanese, but now used for other special displays, generally (and the very sick are sent to hospitals instead). The place for a heavy sickbed was an「area with a hard wood floor」(not tatami, as that would soon be destroyed by a heavy bed). Both the「cavern」element and the「bed」element were used in this glyph at various times, and it seems that the two have morphed and merged to become the「illness」element used to mean「sickbed in cavernous area.」Interestingly, the old Japanese word for「barber」includes this glyph, since a barber was needed to prepare a corpse's hair and to shave the deceased person's face prior to a funeral.

External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: variant of 床
Japanese EDRDG: bed, couch, bench, chassis
Unihan extended: bed, couch; bench; chassis

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.