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KA N
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
「Stifling fluid flows」suggest myriad cases of gonorrhea.「Flow stifling, flow of yellow clay and soil, flow like violets」that is CHINA (top element is either「twenty」or「plants, emerging shafts」and varies by font).「Stifling, suffocating, unrelenting propagation and growth」due to the way violets take over a garden uncontrollably with their root systems, and, the manner that clay finds its way into every possible space. Violets are considered as weeds in most locales and will grow to cover the entire nearby ground if unchecked, stifling whatever else may be growing beside in an ever-widening concentric circle radiating from the center. The glyph「center」being an abbreviated form to express the meaning「China」as a country. This methodology of dominating one's nearest surrounding neighbors and then assimilating their land into what is today referred to as China is well known by historians as the manner in which China conquered its neighbors and grew in influence.
Note that Chinese sources count 14 glyph strokes, but Japanese only 13 strokes since the topmost-right element merged.
Further note that this is the very glyph used to represent the「kan」portion of kanji…how appropriate is that?
External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: man; Han ethnic group; Chinese (language); the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD)
Japanese EDRDG: Sino-, China
Unihan extended: the Chinese people, Chinese language
Used within names (nanori)
はん
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
Related glyphs [ Toggle font ]
- Glyph.07897
- Strokes: 14 ~ 13
- jlpt-N4 grade_03
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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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