Login
Welcome! Introduction
Glyphs missing from your font set may appear strange, or not at all. We recommend enabling East Asian language support.
TO ・ TO U ・ ZU
mo ri ・ fu sa gu ・ ya ma na shi
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
However, it is far more conceivable that the elements as「woody with night soil」may not be for everybody, could naturally have some RESTRICTIONS OF USE, and need to be STOPPED and/or PREVENTED in certain, if not many, circumstances (the meaning behind covering one's ass, it is thought)…some sources claim the old version of this glyph combines 度 and 攴 as elements,「how many times」and「raised rod with crotch」that seems to suggest these meanings and 'to cover your ass' also, but that glyph is not part of the JIS official list, for some reason. Other sources suggest a replacement glyph is 棠, combining elements of「booty, prized small and youthful vagina」with「woody」that could refer to some RESTRICTED USE, by the owner or government, such as when part of a lord's collection of assets but not directly referring to night soil. Yet admittedly, it seems there could be little that a small, young female subject could actually do otherwise in such circumstances to avert the will of her lord and master back in the old days.
As the BIRCH-LEAF PEAR (Pyrus betulaefolia Bunge), a reference to a hermaphrodite fruit species (i.e., having both male and female organs, or stated another way, will propagate with either sex) that naturally performs heavy metal detoxification of soils via phytochelatin biosynthesis functions to RESTRICT, STOP, PREVENT environmental toxicity (but how would the ancients have known this?), and, when used medicinally as an astringent, helps RESTRICT, STOP, PREVENT diarrhea (loosened「night soil」). Fruits are brown and covered with white spots, again suggestive of these elements as「woody with night soil.」This tree species purportedly is used in ancient Chinese literature to represent long-lived physical things that survive into the present, perhaps by stopping, preventing, restricting the use of one's anus for other than its natural scatological functions (or on the contrary, by always accommodating one's lord and master…see 婈 and 嬖). Either way, these practices indeed have survived to the present, as evidenced by the disproportionate emphasis today on gay rights/power expressed in media (though not to suggest that disproportionation wasn't a long time in coming…disproportionate means too little or too much of something based upon a correlation with something else: unequal).
External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: birchleaf pear (tree); to stop; to prevent; to restrict
Japanese EDRDG: woods, grove
Unihan extended: stop, prevent; restrict
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
Japanese vocabulary: 33 entries
Chinese usage: 74 entries
Used in glyphs (or, see also): 72 entries
Related glyphs [ Toggle font ]
Similar glyphs with related meanings: 9 entries
- Glyph.01197
- Strokes: 07
- jlpt-N2 grade_09
Agree? Disagree? Express your opinion by posting a comment.
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.
This publication has included material from the Unicode Character Database. Copyright © 1991-2016 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed under these Terms of Use.