Chinese Characters in Cantos

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CROSSING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, ANCIENT AND MODERN:

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE CHINESE CHARACTERS IN EZRA POUND’S

THE CANTOS

by

Baomei Lin

APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

__________________________________
Tim Redman, Chair

__________________________________
Milton A. Cohen

__________________________________
Ming Dong Gu

__________________________________
Fredrick Turner

__________________________________
Daniel B. Wickberg
Copyright 2009
Baomei Lin
All Rights Reserved
CROSSING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, ANCIENT AND MODERN:

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE CHINESE CHARACTERS IN EZRA POUND’S

THE CANTOS

by

BAOMEI LIN, B.A., M.A.

DISSERTATION

Presented to the Faculty of

The University of Texas at Dallas

in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements

for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE HUMANITIES

MAJOR IN STUDIES IN LITERATURE

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS

December, 2009
UMI Number: 3391619

All rights reserved

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation could not be completed without the guidance and support of a number of

people who have continually resuscitated both it and me. I am most grateful to Professor Tim

Redman, my director, for his outstanding judgment, useful suggestions, warm encouragement,

incredible patience, generous support, and continuing investment in my success. He has been an

exceptional advisor to me.

I also want to express my gratitude to other members of my committee—Professor

Milton Cohen, Professor Mingdong Gu, Professor Fred Turner, and Professor Daniel

Wickberg— for reading and commenting on my work, for generously giving their time, hard

work and intelligent advice, and for broadening my thinking about poetry, history and culture.

In April 2003, my foster father’s death brought the sudden and unwanted resurrection of

memories. During my depression, numerous mentors have sustained my life and sanity. I am

profoundly indebted to Professor Turner whose generous bestowal of wisdom has brightened my

soul. Professor Michael Wilson, the Associate Dean of the School Arts and Humanities, also

gave me invaluable understanding and support. Dean Zena Jackson and Dean Tom Fox at North

Lake College became my protectors and friends. Sharon Bowles at the Student Counseling

Center provided precious professional assistance in healing.

I also leaned too much on the good and generous nature of close friends. Special gratitude

is due Cynthia Manning, Yun Zhang, Yingyan Zhou, Ping Deng, Yiping Wu, Claude Pruitt,

Laura McLarnnan, and my sister Yimin for their generous support.

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Finally and especially I thank my foster father for his love. This dissertation was in his

vision, only he did not live to see the completion of it.

May, 2009

v
CROSSING THE DIVIDE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, ANCIENT AND MODERN:

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF THE CHINESE CHARACTERS IN EZRA POUND’S

THE CANTOS

Publication No. ____________

Baomei Lin, Ph.D.


University of Texas at Dallas, 2009

Supervising Professor: Tim Redman

This dissertation will argue that Pound’s Chinese transliteration reflects a deep understanding of

the Chinese language and that his intellectual, cultural, and linguistic empathy with the far and

remote Chinese sign system is impossible without the accessibility of the Chinese written signs

that are visual and organic. Pound’s transcultural or translingual practice demonstrates that he

does have a bridge of signs that can lead him in crossing the distance between East and West,

ancient and modern. This dissertation consists of two parts. Part One gives an overview of the

Chinese language and culture, reveals the organic nature of Chinese characters and its connection

to Pound’s poetics, and analyzes the functions of the Chinese characters in The Cantos. A mini-

dictionary of all the Chinese characters in The Cantos in the order of their appearance, Part Two

offers a detailed account of those characters’ shapes, sounds, and meanings. As a whole, this

vi
dissertation will provide insights into Pound’s creative use of Chinese signs with the instincts of

a keen cultural observer and preserver. His understanding of the signs and symbols in Chinese

characters led him away from his initial vision of its aesthetics as a remedy for the inert

Victorian verse and into a liminal realm where the collective unconscious of a silenced culture

meets the new and dominant societal and cultural logic.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………iv

Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….................vi

List of Illustrations………………………………………………………….……………………ix

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1

Part One Chapter 1. An Overview Of Chinese………………………………………………....11

Chapter 2. The Organic Nature of Chinese Characters and Vorticist Poetics………..46

Chapter 3. The Chinese Ideogram as Contextualizing Building Block……………....68

Chapter 4. The Chinese Ideogram as Cotext………………………………………....92

Part Two A Mini-Dictionary of All the Chinese Characters in The Cantos…………………..108

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….245

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...…………….247

Vita

viii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Fig. 1…………………………………………………………………………………………….29

Fig. 2…………………………………………………………………………………………….30

Fig. 3…………………………………………………………………………………………….31

Fig. 4…………………………………………………………………………………………….31

Fig. 5…………………………………………………………………………………………….32

Fig. 6…………………………………………………………………………………………….32

Fig. 7…………………………………………………………………………………………….32

Fig. 8……………………………………………………………………………………………33

Fig. 9…………………………………………………………………………………………….33

Table 1…………………………………………………………………………………………..36

ix
INTRODUCTION

This dissertation will argue that Pound’s Chinese transliteration reflects a deep

understanding of the Chinese language and that his intellectual, cultural, and linguistic empathy

with the far and remote Chinese sign system is impossible without the accessibility of the

Chinese written signs that are visual and systematic. In my close reading within the context of a

large linguistic picture, Pound’s transcultural or translingual practice demonstrates a clear case in

which two distinctive cultures can be bridged by signs. In establishing that, I also hope to end

the scholarly wavering when it comes to judge whether Pound is a genuine genius or a blind

copyist in using Chinese. He does have a bridge of signs that can lead him in crossing the

distance between East and West.

Ezra Pound’s devotion to Chinese culture has fascinated many scholars. Pound’s interest

in Chinese culture stretched over a period of fifty years. His relation to China is essential to our

knowledge of this important modernist figure. A substantial amount of research has contributed

to our understanding of that aspect.

D. Briton Gildersleeve’s 1998 survey provides a good guide to the literature on Ezra

Pound’s Chinese cultural/poetic translations or transliterations. According to Gildersleeve, early

critics and scholars, including T.S. Eliot, tried to separate Pound’s “real” poetry from his

translation. Hugh Kenner’s 1951 book, The Poetry of Ezra Pound, however, included

“meticulous reading of Pound’s Chinese materials” (Gildersleeve, 224). Eva Hesse viewed

Pound’s relation to China as “part of a cross-cultural intellectual and philosophical discourse”

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(Gildersleeve, 225). During the 1970s, Kenner’s book The Pound Era placed Pound in a

“completely new context of modernism” (Gildersleeve, 225). And the 1980s saw much Poundian

research focus on the Chinese ideograms and translation issues. The “virtual explosion” of Pound

criticism was in the 1990s. Of the “25 significant publications on Pound’s Chinese works,

seventeen were written “by Asian authors” (Gildersleeve, 232).

After 1998, scholarship on Pound continued to grow. Discussion on Pound’s translation,

adaption of Confucian works, and contact with Chinese culture continued to flourish. New

perspectives such as globalism and post-colonialism were also added. Eric Hayrot’s Chinese

Dreams: Pound, Brecht, Tel Quel investigates how Pound and other avant-garde artists have

used the oriental other to open their thinking and writing. Yunte Huang, for example, placed

Pound as a new historicist in the context of globalism. Chen Xiaomei, for another example,

rediscovered Pound in the light of a post-colonial discourse and defended his “misreading” of

Chinese as a “legitimate and necessary factor, as a dynamic force, in the making of literary

theory” (Chen, “Rediscovering Ezra Pound: A Post-Postcolonial 'Misreading' of a Western

Legacy,” 82).

Overall, most scholars and critics tend to stress Pound’s poetics, ideology, and other

broader concerns about the East-West discourse.

The key to the understanding of Pound’s poetics, ideology, and orientalism, however, is

his numerous citations of Confucian texts and Chinese characters in The Cantos. Those Chinese

characters, some in handwritten form and some in printed style, appear in more than half of The

Cantos. They clearly indicate Pound’s sophisticated knowledge and mastery of the Chinese

written language after decades of ardent studies. Those Chinese characters, most of which are
3

from Confucian texts formalized about two millennia earlier, demand intensive deciphering work

from even the most learned Chinese scholars.

There have been many attempts to ease the reading of Chinese in The Cantos. In 1974,

David Gordon published a few essays in Paideuma on the characters that appeared in Canto 53,

98, and 99. In 1975, Thomas Grieve also wrote “Annotations to the Chinese in Section: Rock-

Drill.”. In 1976, Carroll F. Terrell’s A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound listed all the

Chinese ideograms in The Cantos in both detailed notes and a final glossary. In 1980, Randall

Schroth’s “A Primer for Some of Pound's Chinese Characters” explained some of the most

frequently used Chinese characters and phrases in The Cantos. In 1992, Chao-ming Chou “The

Teaching of The Sacred Edict and Pound’s Cantos 98 and 99,” examines Pound’s contemplations

of The Sacred Edict of K’ang Hsi, the main source for this two cantos In 1996, Paul Wellen’s

analytic dictionary of Ezra Pound’s Chinese characters, modeled on Karlgren’s approach,

provided a deeper understanding of these characters by explaning “the pictorial components” of

those characters. In 2001, Naikan Tao’s carefully examined the Chinese characters used in the

Pisan cantos and helps us see many nuances of Pound’s lines. In the same Paideuma issue that

Tao discusses the Chinese characters in the Pisan cantos, Aaron Loh’s “Decoding the Ideogram:

The Chinese Written Character in The Cantos of Ezra Pound” examined all the characters in The

Cantos and linked them to the six traditional character forming principles () and aesthetics

of calligraphy.

Often, the discussion of Pound’s handling of Chinese characters is concerned with

broader issues. Steven G. Yao’s “‘Better Gift You Can Make to a Nation’: Pound’s Confucian

Translation and the Internationalisation of the The Cantos,” for example, mentions the “innate

poeticity” of Chinese characters; yet his major concern is about translation and language in
4

general (Yao, 111). Brian M. Reed’s “Ezra Pound's Utopia of the Eye: The Chinese Characters

in Rock-Drill,” for instance, also concerns Pound’s ideology. David Colón’s dissertation in 2004,

Embodying the Ideogram: Orientalism and the Visual Aesthetic in Modernist Poetry, even traces

the parallelism in accepting and appropriating the East by studying Fenollosa, Pound, the

Objectivists, and the Concrete Poets of Brazil.

In other words, the research about Pound’s use and transcription of Chinese characters in

The Cantos seems slight compared to the discussion about Pound’s relation to China. From 1974

to 2001, only Carroll Terrell, Paul Wellen, and Aaron Loh had cataloged and explained all the

Chinese characters in The Cantos. Even within this small body of work dealing with the Chinese

characters in The Cantos, there are many disquieting aspects of the research approaches

employed.

First, there is an apparent lack of any interest in understanding the Chinese language, and

consequently, there is not even a brief overview of the Chinese language. Terrell’s A Companion

to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, for instance, lists all those Chinese characters in detailed notes and

a final glossary of Chinese characters, but his notes on the system of Chinese ideograms are brief.

David Gordon, Paul Wellen, and Aaron Loh too give only a brief background of Chinese

linguistics in their essays.

It is well known that Pound’s knowledge of the written Chinese was mediated through

Fenollosa’s notes, Matthews’ and Karlgren’s dictionaries, and Pauthier’s introduction about

Chinese linguistics in Chine Moderne, all of them are serious studies of the Chinese language.

Yet those quality sources do not negate the need of overviews of the Chinese language in

examining Pound’s usage of Chinese characters. On the contrary, those sources need to be

approached again with new perspectives from Chinese linguistics.


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Second, most of the explanatory notes or mini-dictionaries for the Chinese characters

used in The Cantos are devoid of etymology, even though quite a few scholars noticed Pound’s

reading of Chinese is etymological, and a hypothesis of Pound’s etymographic reading has been

proposed by Feng Lan in 2001. Yet, the interconnectivity of those Chinese characters cannot be

seen without the proper information about their early pictorial forms. The earlier pictorial forms

can also help us to understand Pound’s quick grasp of Chinese characters. No scholar, however,

has listed the ancient forms for all the charcters in The Cantos. Even though Paul Wellen’s

analytic dictionary and Aaron Loh’s decoding of the Chinese ideograms in The Cantos have the

strongest etymological appeal, none of them includes the ealier forms of Chinese characters.

Third, there is no discussion of the general patterns of Pound’s use of Chinese characters.

Without a thorough investigation of how Pound employs the written Chinese in general, the

studies of the Chinese characters in The Cantos can at best be scattered notes of exegesis.

There are also some alarming mistakes in some explanatory notes. For instance, in Canto

XCVIII, Pound wrote: “First the pen yeh本/then τέχυη業 “(Canto XCVIII, 706-707). Since

“yeh” is the pronunciation of “業,” Pound’s slip of the “pen” is obvious here; I believe he

intended to write: “First the pen本/then yeh τέχυη.” “本業” as a very deeply entrenched

Confucian concept, means “main/fundamental profession/work.” Terrell’s A Companion to The

Cantos of Ezra Pound, however, does not point out Pound’s confusion of these two verbal

entities.

This dissertation, therefore, will add to the studies of Pound’s relation to China with an

overview of Chinese, a mini-dictionary of Chinese ideograms in The Cantos that includes the
6

historical changes in their forms, and a detailed discussion of those ideograms’ nature and

function.

My dissertation will be divided into two parts:

Part One Chapter 1 An Overview Of Chinese

Chapter 2 The Organic Nature of Chinese Characters and Vorticist Poetics

Chapter 3 The Chinese Ideogram as Contextualizing Building Block

Chapter 4 The Chinese Ideogram as Cotext

Part Two A Mini-Dictionary of All the Chinese Characters in The Cantos

In Chapter 1, I will give an overview of the Chinese language from three aspects: the

origins of Chinese characters, the relations between the Tibetan and Chinese language, and the

variety of Pound’s pronunciations of Chinese characters. When explaining the origins of

Chinese characters, I will provide background on Chinese society and culture, and emphasize

particularly the ideological and material connection between the creation of characters and

divination. Then I will move on to discuss some linguistic features of Chinese that are not clearly

reflected in its written forms. I will first talk about the difference and connection between the

Tibetan and Chinese languages. Chinese is to Tibetan as English to German, and many of the

germinating forces innate in Tibetan still drive the evolution of Chinese. At the same time, the

Chinese language has incorporated new elements over time, and has become a completely new

language that is distinct from the Tibetan language.

This brief recapitulation of the relationship between Tibetan and Chinese will show that

Pound’s Chinese transliteration reflects an understanding of the Chinese language that is deeper

than what most scholars have realized and that his intellectual, cultural, and linguistic empathy
7

with the far and remote Chinese sign system is impossible without the accessibility of the visual

and systematic Chinese written signs.

In Chapter 2, I will give a brief explanation of the organic nature of the Chinese

ideograms in The Cantos. I place the 243 characters from The Cantos under six main categories

and 49 subcategories. Most subcategories contain only one building block, that is, one basic

shape. For example, under the subcategory “Mouth,” fourteen characters share one basic shape,

( , mouth). Together with the mini-dictionary in Part Two, readers will be able to see

the interrelationships of those ideograms.

The discussion of the organic nature of the 243 characters in The Cantos will lead to an

inquiry into Pound’s poetics. His interest in reading and using Chinese characters serves as an

important case for cross-cultural studies. As a whole, the Chinese writing system employs about

200 basic roots; all of them pertain to basic aspects of human life and of immediate perception.

For Pound, Chinese ideograms can be universal signs because of their cross-cultural and extra-

temporal qualities. The possibilities of written concepts are infinite, and this fact lays the

foundation for the Far Eastern aesthetics and from which Pound advances his formulation of a

modernist poetics different from the stagnant Victorian verse.

In Chapter 3, “The Chinese Ideogram as Contextualizing Building Block,” I will provide

a map of Pound’s use of Chinese characters. There are two patterns of ideogram incorporation in

The Cantos:

1 ) Chinese characters as universally recognized signs for all readers, as in Canto CII:

she being of Cadmus line


The snow’s lace washed here as sea-foam.
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不 But the lots of’em, Yeats, Possum, Old Wyndham


had no ground to stand on (The Cantos, 742)

“不” (“No”) is treated by Pound as a universal sign that needs no explanation, translation or

pronunciation to lead the readers to its correct meaning.

2) Chinese characters with pronunciations such as “又樸” in Canto XCVIII. It is

preceded by “the Commissioner Iu-p’uh” (The Cantos, 700). In Canto XCIII, “顯”(“to

demonstrate”) is given the pronunciation “hsien” immediately afterwards (The Cantos, 644).

“敬”(“respect”) in Canto LXXXVIII is given both the alphabetic spelling and the tonal value “in

the fourth tone” (LXXXVIII, 595).

In Pattern One, a Chinese character is inserted in the poetic flow without its Romanized

form or pronunciation. In Pattern Two, a Chinese character is provided together with its Roman

transliteration. Most ideograms, be they in Pattern One or Pattern Two, are given translations and

descriptions of their meanings. Sometimes, Pound leaves an ideogram without any explanation.

There are also a few places of ambiguity and confusion that leave his readers pondering whether

they are compositional stakes or mistakes.

On the whole, however, Pound innovatively uses Chinese ideograms as building blocks

of this epic.

Chapter 4, “The Chinese Ideogram as Cotext: Poetics of Visual Certainty and Semantic

Complexity” will establish that Chinese ideograms serve as cotexts of different functions. They

can provide multiple directions in meaning, render ambience for free association, connect

imageries and thoughts, add new proposals, connect all key elements, invite the reader to play a

mind game, summarize, and complete many more tasks. In fact, one aspect of the timelessness of
9

The Cantos lies in this versatility of Chinese ideograms’ cotexting. This cotextuality might be a

unique feature of Chinese ideograms. No other language in The Cantos has such a complexity of

functions. By incorporating Chinese ideograms into English verse, Pound did “make it new”

with their infinite possibilities of reading.

Part Two of this dissertation will be a mini-dictionary of all the Chinese characters in The

Cantos. The Cantos incorporated 243 Chinese characters in total, all of them critical to our

understanding of this epic. A detailed account of all the characters’ shapes, sounds, and

meanings will not only put many missing semiotic pieces back onto the poetic canvas, but it will

also provide more insights into Pound’s deliberate use of Chinese signs as significant texts.

Therefore I list every character’s forms, pronunciations, meaning, and explanations of

components as well as the page number(s) and the number of citations. By listing the different

forms for the same characters, readers can visualize the etymological transformation of Chinese

characters and better understand their immediacy. As to the pronunciation of these Chinese

characters, I will provide not only modern pronunciations but also ancient ones.

All in all, Pound’s creative use of Chinese ideograms demonstrates his acute instincts of a

keen cultural observer and preserver.


PART I
CHAPTER ONE

AN OVERVIEW OF CHINESE: A LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL


EXPLANATION OF POUND’S RELATION TO CHINA

Ezra Pound’s knowledge of Chinese poses an interesting, if not challenging, topic for

many critics and readers. He could not speak the language, but through the medium of Chinese

characters, he was able to convert classic Chinese poems into lucid English verse, develop his

ideogrammic poetics, and incorporate the Confucian texts into The Cantos. His interest in

Chinese culture, however, focuses solely on ancient texts. His attention to the beautiful lyricism

of the poems in Cathay soon developed into a philosophical inquiry into Confucian classics. In

other words, popular lines of Rahiku (Li Po) and Tao Yuan Ming led him to the more archaic yet

foundational works like Shijing (or Shi Ching, The Book of Poetry), The Analects of Confucius,

and Liji (The Book of Ceremony). His The Cantos only takes excerpts with gravitas from the

Confucian works. Be it the expressive Tang and Han poetry translated or the more moralistically

righteous Confucian books incorporated, Pound seems to land solidly on the two most important

cultural boulders of Chinese sense and sensibility. How can Pound, a poet with Western roots,

read, understand, translate and creatively use the gems of Chinese high culture without being

able to speak the language? Why did Pound’s interest in Chinese soon change from vivid

ideogrammic symbols and expressive Tang poems to “dry” Confucian doctrines?

To answer those two questions, one must look into both the unique “universalities” of the

Chinese written language and the “unwavering pivot” quality of the Confucian classics in the

evolutionary context of the Chinese language and culture. In this chapter, I will first trace

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12

Pound’s contact with Chinese culture and discuss his interest in the Confucian works. Next I will

illustrate the “universality” of the Chinese written language, and hence the “commonalities” of

Pound’s silent mastery of Chinese. Then I will discuss Pound’s uncommon remote sense of the

complexity of Chinese culture and his unique grasp of the pivotal moments in Chinese history.

My argument here is that Pound’s Chinese transliteration reflects a profound

understanding of the Chinese language. His intellectual, cultural, and linguistic empathy with the

far and remote Chinese sign system is also closely related to the accessibility of the Chinese

written signs.

I. Pound’s Relation to China and His Interest in the Confucian Works

Pound’s first contact with Chinese culture and literature was through Ernest Fenollosa’s

notes in 1913. Fenollosa’s notes combine an analysis, hypothesis, and treatise of Chinese

ideograms and poetry. The immediacy of pictorial Chinese characters helped Pound absorb

Fenollosa’s explanations and theories whole-heartedly. In 1915, Pound published Cathay, a

translation of Chinese poetry based on Fenollosa’s notes. T.S. Eliot called Pound the “inventor of

Chinese poetry for our time” in 1928.

According to John Nolde, “Pound began his study of Confucius soon after Cathay”

(Nolde, Introduction, 17). He first learned the Four Books translated by M.G. Pauthier. The Four

Books are Duxue (The Great Learning,); Zhongyong (The Doctrine of the Mean ,

); Analects (The Analects of Confucius,); and Mengzi (Mencius,). By

1917 or 1918, Pound “must have worked his way through the Analects… for in one of his

‘Imaginary Letters’ he uses material from the Analects which was to appear later in Canto XIII”

(Nolde, Introduction, 17).


13

Pound’s quest for Confucianism then became a lifelong pursuit. When he was taken to

the DTC, the U. S. Army Disciplinary Training Center in Pisa, Italy, he had only two things with

him, the Confucian classics and a small Chinese dictionary.

Besides the Confucian classics, Pound also studied Père De Mailla’s Histoire Générale

de la Chine, a translation ofor shortened as T’ung-Chien Kang-Mu,

“a Manchu version of the most prestigious of all Chinese histories” (Nolde, 25). These books

form the basis of the Chinese Cantos.

Pound’s relation with China, however, did not begin with his encounter with Fenollosa’s

widow in 1913. In fact, Chinese friends had accompanied him on his aesthetic journey to the

East. Qian Zhaoming’s book Ezra Pound’s Chinese Friends: Stories and Letters details Pound’s

friendship with Chinese officals, scholars, and students. Qian starts with Pound’s parents’

Chinese friend who offered Pound employment in China before he met Fenollosa’s widow. After

carefully presenting the correspondence between Pound and numerous Chinese friends, Qian

ends Pound’s list of friends with a Chinese missionary worker in Lijiang where the Na-Ki people

live. The Na-Ki people still use Dongbawen, the living fossil form of Chinese oracle ideograms.

Lijiang would become the final destination of Pound’s poetic imagination and the end of his

intellectual journey to China.

From Qian’s book, we see Pound’s trajectory to its landing on the earliest roots of

Chinese ideograms and culture. Lijiang is adjacent to Tibet and Dongbawen and is the written

language of a Tibetan tribe. Sinologists had long established that linguistically Chinese and

Tibetan come from the same root. Thus the inclusion of Lijiang as one of the sites of paradiso in

The Cantos is a tribute to the farthest roots of Chinese culture.


14

Also, Pound’s friends had influenced his choices of ideograms even though most

inclusions are based on the theme of a particular poem. Some of the characters in The Cantos are

also frequent regulars in Pound’s correspondence with his Chinese friends. In those letters Pound

frequently discusses Confucian concepts like “” and many of those concepts are written in

their original Chinese forms.

Another of Qian’s books, The Modernist Response to Chinese Art: Pound, Moore,

Stevens, also points out that it is through visual arts that Pound discovered China. This occurred

before his acquisition of Fellonosa’s notes. According to Qian, “Pound’s appreciation of Chinese

culture was awakened…in England in the years 1909-1914…and his mentor in Chinese art is the

British art expert Laurence Binyon” (Qian, The Modernist Response, 6).

It is interesting, as discussed at the beginning of this chapter, to see that throughout his

lifelong contact with Chinese culture, his interest mainly focuses on the Confucian works. Not

only did Pound use many Confucian concepts in The Cantos, but all the ideograms cited there

are from the Confucian books.

To illustrate, I will give two examples from The Cantos. One does not use Chinese

ideograms, and the other incorporates many. Both reflect Pound’s idea of an organic social

structure.

In Canto XCIX, Pound writes:

The father’s word is compassion;


The son’s, filiality.
The brother’s word: mutuality;
The younger’s word: deference.
Small birds sing in chorus,
Harmony is in the proportion of branches
as clarity (chao1)
(Canto XCIX, 728)
15

The word “chao1 is not given in Chinese and the first four lines are a translation of Verse

51 of Chapter “”(“Zengzi Establishing Filial Piety”) of Liji, The Ceremonial

Guidelines. A line-by-line correspondence between the original and the translation is as follows:

The father’s word is compassion;

The son’s, filiality.

The brother’s word: mutuality;

The younger’s word: deference.

This excerpt in Canto XCIX uses only the Romanized form and translation of Chinese.

Canto LXXXV, however, has104 ideograms. Those ideograms are:

In fact, if we extract these ideograms and put them together, they look like a clipped

collage of decrees from Shangshu, also called Shu Ching (/, The Book of History ), one

of the works of Confucian canon. Below are two chapters from Shangshu. The underlined

ideograms are reoccurrences in Canto LXXXV.


16

(·, Shangshu, Chapter “One Virtue”)


·, Shangshu, Chapter “Panggeng”

The first of the Rock-Drill cantos, Canto LXXXV, is about Shangshu (Shu Ching).

According to William Cookson’s A Guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound, this canto “goes back to

the beginnings of the Confucian tradition by presenting radiant ideograms from the Shu Ching

(The Book of History, the oldest complete Chinese classic, which covers seventeen hundred years,

from 2357 to 641 BC). Thus, taking up themes from the previous summary of Chinese history

from de Mailla (LIII-LXI), the roots of Confucianism are embodied in Rock-Drill” (Cookson,

168-169).

In the next sentence, Cookson continues to comment on the Chinese ideograms used in

this canto. According to him, “the Chinese ideograms act as an important means of creating the

general effect of radiance which pervades Rock-Drill – the beauty of the layout of the words on
17

the page is more marked than anywhere else in the poem” (Cookson, 169). But Pound’s

incorporation of 104 Chinese ideograms in the opening of Rock-Drill is not merely a beautiful

layout of words. It also refers to the original Chinese text of Shangshu (Shu Ching). As a whole,

those ideograms formed a collage-like passage imitating a Shangshu (Shu Ching) passage.

In The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, Ernest Fenollosa did not

focus on Confucian texts only. Pound’s philosophical inquiry into the Confucian classics,

however, involves much reading of the original texts. He had gained literacy in written Chinese

since his first contact with Ernest Fenollosa’s notes in 1913.

II. Universality of Chinese Ideograms

Pound’s “silent” reading of this language was not an isolated case. The cross-cultural

“universalities” of Chinese symbols enable many readers to use them without precise

pronunciations.

For instance, the ideogram “” is a picture of the sun:

This picture requires no literacy. The only challenging part is the black dot inside .

It points to the sunspot (Chinese has one of the world’s earliest written record of the sunspot). As

an ideogram, “” is stylized form of the center of this picture. The horizontal stroke inside “”

replaces the black dot and the rectangular indicates the round shape of the sun.
18

For this image, sound is not recorded, and hence throughout history anyone who used this

symbol could attribute different pronunciations to it. More than three thousand Chinese dialects

pronounce it differently. Over half of these dialects are mutually incomprehensible. Over time,

Chinese pronunciation has continued to change, while the writing system had been little altered

until the radical simplification movement in mainland China in 1956.

In regions outside of China, the reading of Chinese characters became more creative.

Japanese, for instance, can read “” as “ni” as in their country’s name “ (Nippon)” or “bi”

as in the word “day of the week().” Korean, on the other hand, read it as “il( .” Needless

to say, since the Japanese and the Korean borrowed many words from the Chinese, their

pronunciations might be a reflection of Chinese pronunciation at different periods of time. For

instance, Chinese characters in Japanese have three kinds of borrowed sounds: from the

Wu region of China during the fifth and sixth centuries, from the capital of the Tang

Dynasty, and during the Song and the Ming Dynasty.

Aside from borrowed sounds, the Japanese often has a native reading that is based on the

pronunciation of the Japanese equivalents of Chinese words. While a Chinese ideogram always

has one syllable, the native reading can consist of many syllables. The Chinese character “”

for instance, can also be pronounced as “higashi” and “azuma.”

In The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry, Ernest Fenollosa points out

that Chinese ideograms are “arbitrary symbols” that have “no basis in sound” (Fellnollosa, 8).

This comment admits to the recognition of a kind of free association between sound and meaning

for Chinese characters. It is this liberation from sound in the language recording system that

makes the spread of Chinese ideograms possible. Anyone in any region during any period of
19

time can read Chinese ideograms or at least those ideograms that involve common aspects of

human life such as planetary entities, animals, plants, and architecture.

Those common objects’ pictorial representations became the roots of the Chinese system.

Once people master those few roots, the rest of the characters become easy to construe and

deduce. For example, the basic root “human being ” is a shorthand picture of a person . If

we add a horizontal line across the upper part of it, the “human being” gets two arms , which

indicates the expansion of space; hence its meaning “big” is easily assigned to this character. If

we add a dot to , it becomes , which means “too (much)” as a tail is not necessary for a

grand human being. If we add a shorter horizontal line on top of “big” , we have a new

character to represent “heaven/sky” as the top of our body can be an analogy for the top of

our universe. And if someone is taller than the sky, he is a hero, or rather, as traditional thinking

would have it, a tall, mature, married man. Therefore all four expansions of “”—“,” “”,

“,” and “” — are readable without taxing the memory; once readers know “,” they

probably can guess the meaning of the other four words.

Adding simple indicators to a basic signifying unit is not the only way to enrich this

system; modification can also achieve efficiency. Take “” as an example again : if hunches

over, we have a new word for “hunch,” which can further be expanded into “,” “sentence/a

stop in speech.” A slight tilt of head to the left means “not right,” hence + become “,”
20

“talking loudly.” A head tilt to the right also means “not right,” but it is associated more with

children and women as in the word (to die young) ” and “(ghost/seductive). ”

The rotation of a basic picture unit also adds new meaning to this system. Again, let’s

look at “.” If we turn upside down, it becomes , which means “ to change,” so + =

to change, to morph . And if is horizontally reversed into , we have the character for

“female” and “container.” If turns sideward, that means “to sit,” therefore and (a hot

needle or stick) means “to grill/long/eternity ” as the pain of a grill behind should be felt for a

long period of time.

The combined power of adding indicators, modification, and rotation is, however,

nothing compared to the power of juxtaposition of independent units. Two basic roots can be

combined as in “(two persons=to follow, to obey)” and “(two women=to compare). ”A

basic root and an expansion of it can be also put together and even be further united with another

unit, as in “” (= = big + to divide=legs spreading=standing tall and square=place)

and “” (=place+ hand=to place things). Two expansions can merge together too, such as

“”(patterned speech + place=to visit, to interview). All in all, the possible combination are

endless. The life of these basic roots is so strong that today the Beijing National Security

Consultant Equipment Company has to put 91, 251characters in its database.

Like the English alphabets, the basic roots are only a few in number. Xu Shen (c.58-147)

analyzed components of Chinese characters and found about 540 radicals out of 9,353 characters.
21

The radical is the catalog tag of Chinese ideograms and perhaps the closest concept to the basic

roots. Yet Xu Shen had never seen the carvings of the Shang Dynasty, the most ancient artifacts

of Chinese characters. His 540 radicals, though written very differently in his time, actually

overlapped in the form of the Shang Dynasty carvings. In her book, Explanation of Basic

Chinese Characters, Xiaoli Zou, a famous modern scholar informed by the Shang Dynasty’s

oracle carvings, further divides these radicals into seven categories: human body (197), utensils

(180), animals (61), plants (31), nature (27), numbers (12), and astronomy (22). Within each

category, those radicals are often connected as discussed in the example and expansion of “.”

In my view, Zou’s research could be taken further in that “” is a basic pictorial unit that

“controls” 83 radicals out of 197 that depict a whole human body. Zou also further divides the

remaining115 human body radicals into head, eye, mouth, hand, foot, thus reducing the 197

radical into 6 basic roots. Similarly, radicals in other categories can also be further reduced into

fewer basic roots. In total, there are about 200 basic roots; all of them are sketches of basic

aspects of human life. In other words, they are cognitively accessible symbols; readers do not

have to know their sounds in order to understand them.

As discussed, the concept of basic roots can surpass radicals to illustrate the simplicity of

the formation of Chinese ideograms. This dissertation is, however, not intended to revolutionize

Chinese philology’s long cherished view about radicals, and such an endeavor requires at least

another dissertation. My primary goal in analyzing the simple interconnections among nearly

ninety thousand characters is to show that Chinese ideograms are in certain ways universal signs

that can be read by many people in many regions. Ezra Pound can read and comprehend Chinese

without speaking Chinese. All he ever needed was a revelation of the principles that govern the

numerous creations of Chinese signs. In fact, “from the beginning Pound surprised (Achilles)
22

Fang with his insights into the reorganization (in the seventeenth century) of the Chinese

dictionary from a 540-root system to a 214-root system” (Qian, Pound’s Chinese Friends, 42).

Fenollosa’s notes point out the “vividness in the structure of detached Chinese words”

and state that “the earlier forms of these characters were pictorial, and their hold upon the

imagination is little shaken, even in later conventional modification” (Fenollosa, 9). This gives

Pound a solid guide for a kind of certitude in the ideogram’s signification: “A rose is a rose.” It

also helps to break down a western language speaker’s strong concept of the division between

parts of speech:

…It not so well known, perhaps, that the great number of these ideographic roots
carry in them a verbal idea of action. It might be thought that a picture is naturally the
picture of a thing, and that therefore the root ideas of Chinese are what grammar calls
nouns.
But examination shows that a large number of the primitive Chinese characters,
even the so-called radicals, are shorthand pictures of actions or processes.
For example, the ideograph meaning ‘to speak is a mouth with two words and a
flame coming out of it…the ideograph for a ‘messmate’ is a man and a fire.
(Fenollosa, 9)

In hindsight, my experience with Chinese ideograms might be a case in point of a

cognitive process in learners of the Chinese language when they are outside its linguistic and

educational setting. When I taught myself how to read at two, I was ignorant of the dialect in my

new foster home and of Mandarin, the educational language, in my daycare center. In the same

way, as a foreigner away from the sounds and sights of China, Pound might have been more

acute to the written Chinese’s signification mechanism than most native Chinese speakers.

This kind of acuteness might allow one to perceive the meaning of characters differently

from conventional understanding. The written texture of “(communism)” for instance,

once provoked a solemn feeling in me. My childhood (mis)understanding of communism is


23

solely dependent on the increment of shapes: (to hold both hands high and worship our

ancestors) + (to dig with a shovel) + (to have a spine and a head on top of organized lines)+

(the only thing left in a wrong world). So for me, communism follows this kind of logic:

sometime somebody created something communal(); if I work () hard enough, I too will be

the owner of my own labor and be admired by others(); this path to freedom is the only thing

constant in time(). To most educated Chinese, this idea might be an absurd reading. It is,

however, a personal and poetic reading that served to provide hope for an abused child. Similarly,

Pound might have “invented” his version of Chinese poetry out of linguistic mistakes in order to

escape from the inertia of Victorian verse.

Even without an emotional need for hope and an artistic urge to create, many an

inquisitive reader would find the Chinese writing system highly accessible. It is open to anyone’s

curious inquiries and easily rewards his or her effort. Chinese or not, the viewers of these

ideograms are on an easy ride of “shorthand pictures,” and usually a string of knowledge comes

to mind before the consciousness kicks in. This is very similar to the effect of TV, movies,

YouTube, and Powerpoint in today’s entertainment and education. It is, therefore, not hard to

imagine why Pound’s encounter with Fenollosa’s notes snowballed into five decades of studying

Chinese and an official declaration of Confucianism as his religion.

Fenollosa’s idea that “the ideograph meaning ‘to speak’ is a mouth with two words and a

flame coming out of it,” for instance, is wrong, as “” means “organized speech with a leading

idea.” Pound, too, often makes mistakes when he tries his hand in translating Chinese poetry. But

who hasn’t? Even Xu Shen erred about the origins of some signs in his book Explanation of

Characters(). But this book is still a textbook in Korean high schools and Chinese
24

colleges eighteen centuries after its publication. Even today, with what the Shang carvings

scholars have deciphered, there are still missing pieces in the correct mapping of Chinese

characters’ genealogy due to an archeological gap between the already sophisticated Shang

ideograms and the random marks on the pottery of China’s tribal period.

In fact, sometimes etymological mistakes are encouraged when the need of literacy

outweighs scholarly seriousness. When teaching rural peasants how to read, literate Chinese

educators even twisted the standard association between parts so that those who do not know

how to read can connect their lives with the seemingly complicated characters. For instance, “

(cotton)” in a rural classroom is no longer “a plant that gives us silky fabric” but “a tree where

our white towels are from.” Images, especially a flow of images based on the rule of

juxtaposition as in movies, are full of free association.

While free association between images and meaning can allow for universal readership, it

is not a gain on every front. One can easily hear and see the connections between European

languages, but many Chinese are not aware of the connection between Tibetan and their

language. Rules in the Tibetan language still govern their even most up-to-date speech. The

Sweden sinologist Bernhard Karlgren (1889-1978) builds a phonological link between Tibetan

and Chinese. In his view, features like double consontants are lost in Chinese but when modern

Chinese expanded its vocabulary with double-syllable phrases, these features continue to govern.

The double consonant “gl” in the Tibetan word “glang(girl),” for example, reduced into

“liang(girl/mother)” in ancient Chinese, but returned as “guliang(girl)” in modern Chinese.

Aside from this, the Tibetan language also explains the numerous homonyms in Chinese

as the one hundred thousand characters fall into about four hundred syllables. Usually if

different characters share the same or a similar syllable, they share the same origin. In Tibetan,
25

“xue” means “yogurt.” In Chinese it splits into “(snow),” “(blood),” “(to study),” “

(cave),” “(boots),” and “(to cut and leave a smooth surface ),” all of them related to qualities

of yogurt or the yogurt-making process. “(snow)” is the color of yogurt: white; “(blood)” is

also a kind of thick liquid like yogurt; “(to study)” is also a type of transformation from

material to a new product; “(cave)” means a cool place, possible for making and storing yogurt;

“(boots)” shapes like a cave ; “(to cut and leave a smooth surface )” means a kind of cutting

that leaves a smooth surface, similar to dividing yogurt with a knife or a spoon.

Grammatically, some Tibetan words also contribute to some measure words before

certain nouns. As English differentiates between “a cup of tea” and “a glass of wine,” Chinese is

very particular about the quantity units before the nouns. (In fact, these units, or measure words,

are most difficult for non-native speakers of Chinese to master.) When speaking of a meal, the

Chinese would say “yidunfan (one pause of meal).” “Dun” means “meal” in Tibetan, so

“yidunfan” is actually “one meal of meal.” Even though the Chinese language lost the most

original meaning of “dun,” this word is still used for descriptions of any action that lasts as long

as a meal.

Although it is well established in the field of philology that Chinese and Tibetan are in

the same language family, books, essays, and dictionaries on the linkage are slow to trickle down

to the general public’s awareness. The inherent qualities of Chinese ideograms, such as their

pictorial accessibility and the free association between sound, meaning, and image, might also

contribute to this lack of “deep” inquiries about the roots of the Chinese language. This is very

similar to modern audiences’ fascination with moving pictures and their usual lack of interest in

the sources of those images. Hollywood would not entertain us if every movie it produced
26

actually inspired us to look into every detail of settings, camera movements, and editing

techniques.

This vague sense of Tibetan semiotic roots has a direct impact on Chinese poetics. For

centuries, Chinese poets have been conscious of emotions evoked by frictions, resonances, and

rhymes, such as the way /s/ sounds can be put together to depict rustling of silks and /ang/

sounds usually denote grandeur and happiness. But those sounds are not stable, as people in

different regions during different periods of time might pronounce them completely differently.

Any Chinese poem can sound quite differently acoustically if read in Cantonese, Mandarin, and

Korean respectively. What can remain intact during different audio transcriptions are the “visual

image in the mind,” or phanopoeia, “the maximum of” which “is probably reached by the

Chinese, due in part to their particular kind of writing language” (ABC of Reading, 42).

In ABC of Reading, Pound points out that: “The Chinese ‘word’ or ideogram for red is

based on something everyone KNOWS” (ABC of Reading, 22). In other words, Chinese

ideograms, loosed from their Tibetan semiotic roots, can be signs accessible to everyone, if he or

she is introduced to some basic roots of the Chinese writing system. Pound’s reading and

understanding of written Chinese, therefore, are not unusual. Like Pound, most Japanese and

Koreans can read and write Chinese without speaking the language. What is truly unusual,

however, is his poetic instinct and ingenuity to see the deep psychic levels of buried and silenced

cultures through the lens of the Confucian canon.


27

III. Remote Sense: the Cultural Turn from Divination to Divine Order

“History… brings us tidings of antiquity.”


Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Pro Publio Sestio

Chinese is an old language which constantly renews itself. Like every other language, it

has evolved over a long period of time. Chinese speakers never stay the same in terms of region

and ethnicity. Compared to other ancient languages in the world, however, the Chinese language

does seem to stand out in terms of “continuity” and “unity.” Long after Egyptian hieroglyphs lost

their vocal vitality, Chinese still read the same literary works as their ancestors did several

thousand years ago. Moreover, Chinese speakers have never decreased in numbers. Mandarin

(Putong Hua/ Guo Yu/Hua Yu), a variant of Chinese, has now more than 1.3

billion speakers worldwide. Time seems to favor the Chinese language’s longevity and

expansion.

This “continuity” and “unity” have an impact on the Chinese people’s sense of identity.

Unlike many cultures in which national identity undergoes constant challenges, most Chinese

speakers seem to doubt very little about their Chinese identity. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared

Diamond notices that “it seems absurd to ask how Chinese has been Chinese. China has been

Chinese, almost from the very beginning of its recorded history” (Diamond, 323).

Diamond’s observation is correct, yet he does not point out that this psychological

security is in fact well wrapped in rampant signs of regional expansion and racial mixing. The

Chinese word for Chinese people, (zhongguoren), for example, means “people of the

middle kingdom,” or the people living in the Yellow River Plain. Most Chinese, however, have

never lived in this small patch of land, nor do they have close blood ties to the aboriginal people
28

there. Moreover, even within the Han1 ethnic group, there are many separated communities like

the boat people in Fuzhou City and the Huian people who enjoy the working-mom-stay-home-

dad life style. These two groups, the boat people and the strong-women clan, came from

completely different origins and have successfully retained their cultural identity for almost one

thousand years. But in documentation they share the same ethnicity with other land-bound-male-

dominant Han Chinese. These are just two common cases in one small province of China.

In fact, the old term “Cathay” for China, also the title for Pound’s translation of Chinese

poetry, does not mean “China.” Nor does it mean the major ethnic group, the Han Chinese. It is

the name of a Tartar group that disappeared in history. Its cultural and biological DNA, however,

merged into the melting pot of the Chinese people. The Chinese identity has so long been forged

that “even in periods of political disunity at various times in the past, the ideal of a single,

culturally unified Chinese empire has never been forgotten” (Norman, 1). This continuity and

unity are, however, a process of constant development and at best a “linguistic near-unity”

(Diamond, 323). Together with the Chinese people’s security in their identity, they are the result

of “Sinification,” a historical process in China in which different cultures merged together to

create a culture with a diverse and mosaic core, yet with a finished look that is simple and

harmonious. While Chinese is an ancient language, its linguistic geographic territory has always

been expanding and its written language always remained stable. Its continual evolution over

time in its linguistic territory, ideological constituents, and structural features are often

overlooked except by its philologists.

1
Han, named after the Chinese first enduring feudal dynasty, is the biggest ethnic group in China. Over
97% of the Chinese population is Han.
29

The first written record of the Chinese language was found among relics of the Shang

dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.) that ruled the Yellow River Plain with its powerful empire. A

“superstitious” state in the eyes of its successor, the Zhou dynasty, the Shang Empire was

obsessed with divination. It was through their pervasive divination activities that Chinese writing

was invented and systematized. There were two ways to prophesy: 1) interpretation of the

numerical division of Shi Cao (yarrow grass) sticks; 2) reading of the cracks in burned

turtle shells and ox shoulder blade bones. The archeological discovery of over 5000 characters

drawn over cracks in more than 150,000 oracle pieces documented a wide range of life activity

in Shang Dynasty, indicating a fairly sophisticated stage of Chinese writing.

Below is a picture of an oracle ox bone:

Fig. 1. (Source: http//www.anyang.gov.cn/yswh/ys/jagu/beauty/11.jpg)

The following picture is a turtle shell piece.


30

Fig. 2. (Source: http://www.0730jk.com/bbs/UploadFile/2005-6/2005622222038990.jpg)

Those texts, though succinct in general, are ancestral to all later stages of Chinese,

including modern dialects. Their vocabulary, grammar, and passage structure are similar to later

Chinese. The sentence in the first picture shown here, for example, “ ” (“Until

wait in danger predict out”/“Try to find a way out when trapped in danger.”) shares the same

vocabulary and grammar structure of Confucius’s time (551B.C.—479 B.C.). The passage on the

turtle shell reads as “” (“It is

auspicious to find one’s neck caught up with something and can not be useful. It is auspicious to

go into something good with someone. It is a dangerous thing, however, for a dragon to fall into

a forest. This is entrapment.”) Although this piece is as coherent and complicated as later

writings would be, it still has a conclusive word “”(auspicious) or “” (“dangerous”) to

summarize each divination event. The sequence of the four sentences (descriptions and

evaluations of two good events → description and evaluation of a dangerous situation → a

conclusion) are also similar here to the Chinese essay rules “”( “beginning,

continuation, twist, closure” ).

The Zhou dynasty (West Zhou 1027-770 B.C. and East Zhou 770-221 B.C.) immediately

after the Shang dynasty (1700-1027 B.C.), produced more complex and richer records on bronze.
31

This dynasty rejected its predecessor’s divining and drinking culture as superstitious, barbarian,

and corrupt, a rejection similar to Christianity’s denunciation of paganism. The Zhou people are

an ethnic group to the north of Shang. They believed in the Heavenly Order and were keen to

display and promulgate this “unwavering” truth in meticulous rituals, hierarchical social

structure, moral behavior and copious articles in imperishable bronze.

This drastic cultural change can be seen in the wine accessories of these two dynasties.

The Zhou Dynasty uses wine for ceremonial rituals rather than an indulgence. Therefore their

wine cups tend to be bulky and less functional for drinking, or in other words, they are objects of

gravitas rather than symbols of extravagance. In fact, in Pound’s library, the illustrations of

Chinese vases in Guillaume Pauther’s 1937 book about Chinese history record only wine cups

from the Shang and Zhou Dynasty.

Fig. 3. A Shang Dynasty Wine Cup ( )

Fig. 4. A Zhou Dynasty Wine Cup ( )


32

Fig. 5. A Shang Dynasty Wine Cup ( )

Fig. 6. A Zhou Dynasty Wine Cup ( )


(Source: http://www.pcaw.com.cn/index-gu-jiuqi.htm)

Inscriptions on bronze also reflect the drastic cultural differences between the Zhou

Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty. Passages are usually longer, carefully arranged and are

appraisals of social orders. (The Grand Pot of Count Mao), for instance, described a

count’s gratitude for an Emperor’s bestowal of a prestigious position (the Royal Guard). This

following inscription is composed in straight lines, a sign of logic and control.

Fig. 7. The Grand Pot of Count Mao,, Zhou Dynasty


(Source: http://www.wenyi.com/art/shufa/xianqing/7.htm )
33

Fig. 8. Inscription inside the Grand Pot of Count Mao, Zhou Dynasty
(Source: http://www.wenyi.com/art/shufa/xianqing/7.htm)

Later Chinese writings took on this orderly and logical look. For instance, an inscription

on a stone drum (c.221-207 B.C.) not only has straight horizontal and vertical lines but also has a

poetic format of /a X b X/.

Fig. 9. A Stone Drum and Its Inscription “, , , ” (c.221-


207 B.C.)
(Source: www.9610.com/xianqin/shigu/1.htm and
http://www.wenyi.com/art/shufa/xianqing/12.htm)

Interestingly, Pound was not fully aware of these divination texts. In 1899, a Chinese

philologist (Wang Yirong) discovered th ese bones and shells. Before that, Chinese
34

philologists had been oblivious of this early form of writing for more than two thousand years.

This oracle writing differs greatly from the bronze writing of the Zhou Dynasty, making it very

hard to recognize. It was not until the 1920s and 1930s that Chinese scholars achieved significant

breakthroughs in deciphering these texts. There are still about 2000 characters on those bones

and shells waiting to be identified.

The divination culture, together with its inscriptions, was “absent” from Chinese

intellectual life for a very long time. The superstitious and barbarian culture prior to Zhou

Dynasty, however, never lost its strong hold on Chinese culture. Paradoxically, it became the

philosophical foundation for the Zhou Dynasty’s and every dynasty’s political and cultural

models. According to legends, Zhou Wenwang, the founder of the Zhou Dynasty, discovered his

heavenly mission of building a grand dynasty by connecting the numerical divination system to

ancient folk songs in a Shang prison, an intellectual journey no less difficult and adventurous

than Aeneas’s journey to the future Roman home site.

Confucius then edited Zhou Wenwang’s thinking into the most important book of

Chinese culture, Yi Jing (, or I Ching,), The Book of Chang es2. Also, Confucius exalted Shi

Jing (, or Shi Ching), The Book of Songs, an oral record full of residues from the divination

culture, turning its blatantly direct courting songs into examples of ancestral innocence. In other

words, in China’s long pursuit of societal order and restraints since the Zhou Dynasty, the

divination culture had taken on a quantified and moralized look but never lost its vibrancy.

Today these two books are still widely read as the two most important books for Chinese

philosophy and art. Divination practitioners are still as popular as ever and traditional doctors

2
Most modern scholars tend to believed that Confucius did not compile the book. In Han Dynasty (206
B.C.-A.D. 9) I Ching was finalized as the first book of the Confucian canon. Confucius revered this book
as the explanation of the order of our universe.
35

still prescribe herbs following the same principles laid out in the I Ching. It is because of

Confucius’s cultural preservation, if not alteration, that the Chinese did not lose their divination

culture completely, even if the amnesia about oracle inscriptions lasted for more than two

thousand years. Taken together, the Confucian classics are printed crystals of Chinese pre-classic

culture.

Pound’s attention to the Confucian canons, therefore, was with the instincts of a keen

cultural observer and preserver. His understanding of the signs and symbols in Chinese

characters led him away from an initial vision of its aesthetics as a remedy for the inert Victorian

verse and into a liminal realm where the collective unconscious of a silenced culture meets the

new and dominant societal and cultural logic.

While the West Zhou Dynasty’s rational humanism seems to forever dominate the

high/main culture, more and more mixed Chinese adapted the writing system matured by the

Shang wizards while preserving and reinventing their local and ethnic cultures. As seen from this

brief timetable of political and cultural highlights from the West Zhou Dynasty to present-day

China, the rational Zhou Dynasty’s humanism embedded in Confucianism has been held as a

model despite drastic dynastic changes. Confucianism’s vitality lies in its inclusiveness and

balance of the mystic divination culture and the rational federal state. This timetable’s dynastic

dates follow the convention of the standard state history books in the People’s Republic of China.

Some of the political and cultural highlights are my reflections; many are from memories of my

education.
36

Table 1. A Timetable of Chinese History

Dynasty Political Highlights Cultural Highlights


Xia The beginning of a royal system based Worship of the Sun.
ca. 2000-1700 B.C on blood rather than merit.
Use of bronze.

Sophisticated jade culture.

Shang Tang rebels against Xia’s last king and Worship of various gods and
1700-1027 B.C. establishes the Shang Dynasty. ghosts. The deceased ancestors
are spirits and most natural
Nine surrounding tribes pay tribute to entities have a divine being.
the Shang Dynasty.

Zhou, the last king, is decadent and


tyrannical.

Western Zhou Wu Wang, the son of Weng Wang, Weng Wang finalizes the Ba
Dynasty 1046- establishes the Western Zhou Dynasty. Hua theory. The Yin and Yang
771B.C. dichotomy replacing the old
Formation of a political system of a divination culture.
strong central government and
subordinate dukedoms. Strict social hierarchy and
rituals.

Use of iron.

770-476 Powerful dukes turn their titled lands Political reforms and war with
Eastern B.C. into kingdoms. other kingdoms blossoming
Zhou Spring statesmanship and ideology.
770- and The Qin Kingdom grows stronger by
221 B.C. Autumn political reforms that reward Laws established in Qin
Period individuals for their labor and valor. Kingdom.

Duel between the tradition and


475-221 new reform. Confucius clings to
B.C. the rituals and merits of the old
Warring Zhou Dynasty while promoting
States rationalism in one’s present life.
Period
37

Table 1. continued

221-207 B.C. Qin Kingdom’s Shi Emperor unifies The end of intellectual freedom
Qin China in 221B.C, conquering the Huns after the burning of books and
and the Yue (Viet). the massacre of scholars in 213
B.C.
Liu Bang and Xiang Yu duel for Strengthening of political
control of China. machines.

Unification of measurement and


writing.

Building of the Great Wall, the


massive Epang Palace, and the
Terra Cotta Army.

Xu Fu sets out for the fountain


of youth and settles in Japan.

206 B.C.-A.D. 9 Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Short intellectual renaissance
Western Han Dynasty lays the foundation of followed by dominance of
merciful reign for his descendents. Confucianism.

In-laws of Empress Wang become Merciful reign and simple life


powerful. Wang Mang from her style.
family murders the emperor and
crowns himself in 6 A.D. To prevent Huns’ attack, royal
marriages between the Han and
Huns are arranged.

Prosperity of arts.

A.D. 25-220 Liu Xuan defeats Wang Mang and Messengers sent to India for
Eastern Han establishes the Eastern Han. Buddhist scriptures in 65 A.D.
Buddhism is first introduced
Dou Xian defeats the Huns. into China in 68 A.D.

The revival regime of Eastern Zhou Japanese messengers to China.


gains control over the Han Dynasty.
Ban Chao explores the west,
Competition among three political reaching as far as Rome and
giants: Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and the Sun Persia.
brothers.
Southern Huns surrenders to
China in 87 A.D.
38

Table 1. continued

A.D. 220-280 Cao Cao’s son Pi crowns himself as Competitions between


Three Kingdoms king of Wei (220-265). kingdoms make literati
important. Cao Zhi is
Liu Bei crowns himself as king of Shu considered as the first literati
( 221-263). Prime minister Zhuge poet.
Liang conquered the south.
The rise of literary theories.
Sun Quan crowns himself as king of
Wu (229-280).

A.D. 265-316 Sima Yan begins the Jin Dynasty and Mingling of southern and
Western Jin and gradually united China. northern cultures and the
A.D. 317-420 merging of a multi-racial nation
Eastern Jin with a similar life style.
Civil discordance lasts for 16 years.
The Jin dynasty’s scenic poet
Xie Lingyun and pastoral poet
Invasion of the Huns in 316 A.D. Tao Yuanming and others pave
the way for literary heights of
the Tang Dynasty.

A.D. 420-588 The rise of the Xianbei people in the Budhi Dhazma came to
Southern and North. Guangdong from India (527
Northern Dynasties A.D.) and starts Zen.
Acceleration of Sinicizing in the
second half of the fifth century. Buddhism is spread into Japan
Political split because of different via China.
attitudes towards this assimilation Chinese Chess emerged.
process.
The Zhou Dynasty reunits the North in
577 A.D
A.D. 581-617 Sui Sui Wen Di unites China. Reconstruction of the Great
Wall.
Grand Canal links North China
and South China.
Japan sends boarding students
to China.
China attacks Korea in 614
A.D.
Turkey invadesChina in 615
A.D.
39

Table 1. continued

A.D. 618-907 Tang Li Yuan rebells against the Sui Monk Xuanzang’s travels to
Dynasty, defeating the Turkish, Korea India to fetch the Buddhist
and Japan. scripture in 628 A.D. His story
Empress Wu becomes the first and last is the inspiration for the classic
novel: The Journey to the West.
female emperor in Chinese history.
Xuan Zong’s reign marks the height of Christians and Buddhists are
forbidden to practice and preach
Tang politics, economy, and art.
from time to time.
Tibetans invades China and raids
Peak moment of Chinese
Changan in 763 A.D.
poetry.
Huang Chao’s rebellion from 859
A.D. to 884 A.D.

907-979 Short reigns of various dynasties in Early Israelite immigrants begin


Five Dynasties the North and ten kingdoms in the to settle in China.
&Ten Kingdoms South. The beginning of printing in
China.
More development on lands
predominantly inhabited by
aboriginals in the South.

960- 1279 A.D. Zhao Kuang becomes the first Explosives used in battle by
Song emperor of the Song Dynasty. Chinese against the
Manchurians
Prime Minister Wang AnShi’s reform.
Marco Polo visits China in 1271
Manchurians invade Song.
A.D. He calls the Northern
The rebellion of Liangshan heroes. China “Cathay)”, which later
Gao Zhong crowns himself as First becomes the name for China.
Emperor of Southern Song (1127 - Cathay is the name for a
1279 A.D). dominant ethnic group: Qidan
.
Genghis Khan united Mongolia,
invades the Mongols, and attacks Expansion of the bureaucrat
Russia, Poland and Hungary. Kublai system.
Khan succeeds Genghis Khan and
establishes the Yuan Dynasty.
40

Table 1. continued

A.D. 1279-1368 Attack on Japan, Turkey, and Asia Marco Polo returns to Italy in
Yuan Minor. 1295 A.D.
Conquering Java and Vietnam. Rating of social status based on
race: first, the Mongolian;
Instituting the Han Chinese bureaucrat
second, races other than the
system with Mongolian control.
Mongolian and Chinese Han;
the third, the Chinese Han.
Catholicism spread.
Golden age of drama and
lyricism as most Chinese Han
literati can not advance in
politics.

A.D. 1368-1644 Zhu Yuan Zhang rebels against the Many missionaries like Matteo
Ming Yuan Dynasty in 1355 A.D. Ricci, Nicolas Trigault, John
Beijing becomes its capital in 1420 Aaden Scall von Belle come to
China.
A.D.
Clash between Chinese practice
Attack on Vietnam.
of ancestor worship and
Japan invades the coastal province of Catholic doctrine leads to
ZheJiang. deportation of foreign
The Manchurians occupy the northern missionaries in 1616 A.D.
province of Liao Yang. Seven ocean voyages of Zheng
Rebellion of Li Zicheng, a Chinese He (SanBao), a Chinese
Christian. Muslim. He reaches as far as the
east coast of Africa.

A.D. 1644-1911Qing The Manchurians defeat Li Zi Cheng Manchurian reign and


and establishes the Qing Dynasty, adaptation to Confucianism.
controlling Mongolia, Tibet, Thailand, The Han Chinese males are
and Vietnam. forced to wear the Manchurian
Zheng Cheng Gong takes over Taiwan pigtails.
in1661 A.D. To prevent the spread of
Opium War with Britain (1839- 1842 Christianity, missionaries are
A.D.) marks the beginning of series of executed, literature banned, and
foreign invasions. a Closed Door Policy is
adopted.
Empress Dowager rules China
between 1875 and 1908.
Abolishment of traditional Civil
Service Examination System in 1905..
41

Table 1. continued

Republic of China Sun Yatsen sets up a temporary Switch to Western


(1911- republic government in Nanjing (1912 governmental and educational
1949 A.D.) A.D.). system.
Japanese invasion (1914-1945 A.D.). Intellectual debates over
democracy.
Chiang Kai Shek establishes a
powerful republican government in
1927 A.D.
Communists take over China and
Chiang Kai-Shek moves to Taiwan in
1949 A.D.

Republic of China Cultural Revolution (1966-1976 A.D.) Dominance of Marxism in


mainland China.
Opening and Reform (1979 A.D.-
And now)
People’s Republic of Revival of Confucianism after
China the Opening and Reform.

1949-now

Pound’s The Cantos also provides a brief listing of Chinese dynasties, together with its

outline for the American Cantos:

LIII. Great Emperors


First Dynasty Hia
Tching Tang of Chang (second dynasty) b.c. 1766
Third Dynasty Tcheou b.c. 1122-255
Confucius (Kung Fu Tseu) 551-479

LIV. Fourth Dynasty TSIN, Burning of the Books 213


Fifth Dynasty HAN b.c. 202
Eighth Dynasty SUNG a.d. 420
Thirteenth Dynasty TANG 618

LV. Tchun of TANG a.d. 805 Ngan’s reform


Nineteenth Dynasty SUNG 960

LVI. Ghengis 1206


Kublai 1260
Twentieth Dynasty YUEN (Mongol)
Lady Quang Chi
42

HONG VOU died 1399


Twenty-first Dynasty MING 1368

LVII. Flight of Kien Quen Ti

LVIII. Japan
Tartar Horse Fairs
Tai Tsong, song of Tai Tseu
Twenty-second Dynasty Manchu 1625

LIX. The books into Manchu


Russian treaty

LX. Jesuits

LXI. Yong Tching (Chi tsong hien Hoang Ti) 1723


Kien Long 1736

LXII-LXXI. JOHN ADAMS


Writs of assistance
Defense of Preston
The congress (Nomination of Washington)
Voyage to France
(not being diddled by Vergennes or plastered by Dr. Franklin)
Saving the fisheries
Plan of Government
Recognition, loan from the Dutch, treaty with Holland
London
Avoidance of war with France
(The Cantos, 255-256)

John Nolde’s Blossoms from the East: The China Cantos of Ezra Pound also gives us an

appendix for the Chinese dynasties. He divides Chinese history into 22 dynasties. For each

dynasty, he lists each emperor’s name and enthronement date. He catalogs emperors’ names

Pound mentioned in The Cantos with Pound’s spelling in caps and Wade-Giles transliteration in

parenthesis. For example:

Age of the Five Rulers, 2852-2205 (Legendary)


43

2852 FOU-HI (Fu Hsi)


2737 CHIN-NONG (Shen Nung)
2697 HOANG-TI (Huang Ti)
2598 CHAO-HAO (Shao Hao)
2513 TCHUEN-HIO (Chuan Hsu)
2435 TI-KO (Ti Ku)

Hia Dynasty (Legendary), 2205-1766 BC (Quasi-legendary)

2205 YU (Yu)
2079 CHAO-KANG (Shao Kang)

(Nolde, 435)

Pound’s outline, compared to Nolde’s catalog and division of Chinese history, apparently

lacks a historian’s consistency in style and standard. He seems to focus more on particular

moments and figures, as he does with American history.

Are those moments and figures meaningful components of a sensible system? Do

Pound’s selections reflect a deeper, if not more accurate, understanding of Chinese history, or do

they simply turn into a jambalaya of a foreign pundit’s idiosyncratic fragmentation of a distant

country’s past?

The irregularity of Pound’s listing can provide an insight to this question. For instance,

Pound groups Confucius with the great emperors. The intention is clear. Confucius is the

philosopher king who founded an ideal statecraft. This is also an official view among Chinese

after the Han Dynasty. Pound also stresses the Burning of the Books in the Tsin (Qin) dynasty,

which provides a reason for this dynasty’s short-lived glory. Words like “flight” and “reform”

also reflect tension and change. “Japan,” “Jesuits,” “Russian Treaty” suggest foreign influences.

“Japan,” “Tartar Horse Fair,” “the books into Manchu,” and the mentioning of many non-Han

rulers like “Ghengis” and “Kublai” imply the on-going cultural and ethnic blending.
44

China is an ancient country constantly renewing itself. Confucianism’s vitality lies in its

perfecting the ideals of statecraft while retaining and incorporating many elements of various

cultures. As discussed above, while the West Zhou Dynasty’s rational humanism replaced the

Shang Dynasty’s shamanism, it continued to use the writing system brought to maturity by the

Shang wizards. At the end of Zhou Dynasty’s reign, Confucius achieved the perfect balance

between a hierarchical, stable, and rational political structure and ethnic and cultural blending.

As a keen cultural observer and preserver, Pound grasps these two most important elements in

China’s dynastic changes.

Pound’s primary interest in Chinese historical dramas is to bring to Western civilization

lessons from the East. For him, Confucius’s state and cultural ideals are correctives for the

Western world shattered by two great wars. In his sworn statement under arrest for treason on

May 8, 1945, he states that:

Whenever a Chinese dynasty has lasted three centuries it has been founded on the
principles ascertained by Confucius, i.e. based by him on his collection of historic
Documents; and formulated by in his Testament. Dynasties not so founded have flopped,
as have the systems of Mussolini and Hitler. I mean that the other dynasties have flopped
in briefer periods. Hence my translations of the Testament, the first, and of the
Unwavering or Unwobbling axis, the second of the FOUR Chinese classic Confucian
books.

He also claims that:

A peace in the orient can ONLY be on a Confucian basis. Chiang Kai Chek is probably
ready to admit this. The Chinese republic has erred in eliminating Confucian teaching, or
diminishing it in the schools.

(Document 7—“Ezra Pound’s Supplement to His Sworn Statement: ‘Outline of


Economic Bases of Historic Process’ and ‘Further Points,’” Ezra and Dorothy Pound
Letters in Captivity, 1945-1946, 70)

The first statement about the longevity of Chinese dynasties is very accurate. Confucius’s

principles were developed after Zhou’s tight central and rational control fell apart and China’s
45

dukedoms were in constant wars, a situation similar to Europe’s warring states during Pound’s

time. Confucius’ hometown, Qufu, is close to the Mountain Tai (Tai Shan), a sacred place where

Heaven ordains its virtuous sons, the emperors. Confucius himself was a ritual official for the

already weakened Zhou Royal Court. Between the old Zhou ideals of statecraft and the chaos of

warring dukedoms, Confucius sought a balance between a strong central power and flourishing

local cultures. His principles, much like Pound’s The Cantos, are simple in statement yet rich in

inclusiveness of various cultures. The foundational book of Confucius, I Ching or The Book of

Changes, reveals that changes are always the only constant thing in the universe. Pound’s spirit

for constant artistic reinvention, as my advisor Tim Redman has pointed out in one of our

converstations, “resonates with another book he admired, Ovid’s Metamorphoses.”

In conclusion, Pound’s interest in historical changes led to his unusual visions of the rise

and fall of China’s political figures. Similarly, he acutely senses the most important cultural

transition between the Shang Dynasty’s mystic divination and the West Zhou Dynasty’s rational

humanism. All these keen cultural observations and preservations started with his reading of the

Chinese signs through Fenollosa’s notes. Besides benefiting from an excellent sinologist’s

explanation, the cognitive accessibility of Chinese characters contributed to Pound’s profound

understanding of Chinese language, culture, and history.


CHAPTER TWO

THE ORGANIC NATURE OF CHINESE CHARACTERS AND VORTICIST POETICS

The Chinese ideograms as a whole form an organic system. This knowledge is important

for tracing Pound’s literary career. His poetic theories, especially his Vorticism pact, his

remarkable synthesis of cultures, and his consistent pursuit of the energy pattern of magnetic

fields are all related to his understanding of the organic nature of the Chinese language. In this

chapter, I will first categorize the Chinese ideograms in the The Cantos and explain their organic

nature. Later, I will outline Pound’s transition from Imagism to Vorticism and the parallelism

between Pound’s Vorticist poetics and his understanding of Chinese writing. Lastly, I will look

into the reason behind Na-Ki as the image of paradise at the end of The Cantos.

I. The Organic Nature of the Chinese Ideograms in The Cantos

As discussed in Chapter One, Chinese ideograms are believed by Pound to be universal

signs. They are “based on something everyone KNOWS” (ABC of Reading, 22) and therefore

can be worldwide intellectual resources open to any inquisitive mind. Pound’s reading and

understanding of those signs, though indeed exceptional during his time and even today, is

actually a normal acquisition of visual knowledge, its mechanism highly similar to a movie

viewer’s easy grasp of a visual sequence.

46
47

An in-depth cataloging of basic ideographic components of The Cantos’ Chinese

characters will, moreover, reveal the interconnection between these signs and the simplicity of

their roots. Through Pound’s precise inclusion of Chinese characters one can see that Pound not

only understood these ideograms correctly, but also that he comprehended the organic nature of a

writing system that these ideograms embody. In other words, Pound recognizes that the Chinese

writing system is an organic one built upon basic shapes.

This understanding, however, is not expressed in Pound’s writing about Chinese

ideograms. It is evident in his poetic practice. An illustration of the connections between all the

Chinese ideograms in The Cantos can shed some light upon Pound’s recognition of the organic

nature of the written Chinese signs.

Using Zou’s methodology in her book, Explanation of Basic Chinese Characters, I now

divide all the Chinese characters into six major categories: human, animals, plants, natural

phenomena, human productivity, and number/pairing. The results are as follows:

1) Human:

 Whole Body:

( , ghost), 長( ,long), ( , official), ( , good),

( , virtuous), ( , male), 婦( , wife), ( , letter), 堯( ,

high), ( , summer), ( , close), ( , body), ( ,first),


48

( , which/what), ( , live), ( , servant), ( , amiss),

( , extra), ( , teach), ( , handsome), ( , order),

( , human), ( , orphan), ( , corpse), ( , baby), 無

( , nothing), ( , tired), ( , Buddha), ( bright),

( , filial piety), ( , light), ( , start);

 Parts:

• Eye: ( , risk), 憲( , law), 見( , see), 親( , intimate);

• Nose: ( , self);

• Beard ( ,and);

• Ear: 聰( , smart);
49

• Mouth: 諂( , slander), 辭( , speech), ( , wisdom), ( ,

name),靈( , spirit), ( , old person), 誠( , sincerity),

( mouth), ( , each) , ( , speak), ( , respect),

( , house), 嗎(a question word), 諭( , inform);

• Breath: ( , be/however), ( , ending of a sentence), ( , air);

• Face: ( , face), ( , look);

• Neck: 經( , canon);

• Hand: ( , sacrifice), ( , official), ( , grass), 變( ,

change), ( , offer), ( , canon), 奪( , snatch), 為( , do),

( , again), 棄( , abandon), ( , holy);

• Armpit: ( , also);
50

• Heart: ( , determination), ( , sincere), ( , sincere),

( , virtue), 慮( , consider), ( , threaten), ( ,

sympathy), ( , heart), ( , loyal), ( , must), ( ,

benevolence), ( , emotion), ( , sudden);

• Breasts: ( , do not);

• Waist: ( , important)

• Male reproductive organ: ( , help), ( , ancestor), 祖( ,

ancestor);

• Buttocksocks: ( , behind)

• Foot: ( , to/of), ( , way), 達( , arrive), 時( , time),

( , correct), ( , stop), 發( , develop), ( near);


51

• Meat: ( , help)

• Bone: ( , body), ( , spine bones);

2) Animals:

 Snake: ( , also) , 風( , wind);

 Bird: 鳥( , bird); 獲( , get), ( , friend), ( , think/only);

 Beast: Dog: ( , dog), Leopard: ( , leopard), Horse: 馬( ,

horse);

 Insect: ( , insect);

 Sheep: 詳( , detail), 義( , justice);

 Shell: 賢( , virtue), 財( , wealth), ( , divination), ( ,

omen);
52

 Lizard: ( , change);

3) Plants

 Bamboo: ( , letter case), ( , cut down), ( , simple),

( insistent ), ( , bamboo bridge), ( , manage);

 Tree: ( , high), ( , forest), ( , ultimate), ( , serene),

機( , machine), ( , beam), ( , basic), ( , prosperous),

( , red), ( , simple), 業( , career), ( , tree);

 Grass: ( , tea)

 Flower/Bud: ( , no/not), ( , beginning);

 Crop: ( , bear), ( , hold), ( , and/peace), ( , profit),

書( , book), ( , benefit), ( , health), ( , millet);


53

 Root: ( , his/her/her)

4) Natural Phenomena:

 Water: ( , wide water), 湯( , soup), ( , deep), (method),

( , river);

 Fire: ( , fire);

 Jade: ( , king), 寶( , treasure), ( jade);

 Sun: ( , bright), ( , sun), ( , do not), ( , dawn),

( , royal), ( , elder brother), ( , white);

 Moon: ( , friend);

 Rain: ( , earthquake);
54

5) Human Productivity:

 Spear: ( , accomplish), ( , caution), ( , martial), ( ,

spear), ( , spear), ( , I), 錢( , money);

 Nail: ( , nail);

 Knife: ( , do not);

 Axe: ( , new), 斷( , cut loose);

 Armor: ( , first);

 Container: 盡( , end), 盤( , plate), ( , that), ( ,granary),

( , blood), 監( , supervise), 備( , prepare), ( , finished),

( , fowl), ( , the third son), ( , ceramics), ( , fortune),

( , match);
55

 Boat: ( , complete);

 Stick: ( , the second son); ( , by means of), ( , middle),

( , in/among/at);

 Plow: ( , strength);

 Net: ( , libel);

 Fabric: ( , worship), 顯( , obvious), ( , dark), ( ,

purple), ( , show), ( , end), 幣( , currency);

 Land/Land Development: ( , yellow), 陳( , display), ( , high),

( , pain), ( ,atrocity), ( , earth), ( , field), ( ,

town), ( , thick), ( , constant), ( , fashion), ( , up),


56

( , row/walk), ( , neighborhood), ( , original),( ,

field), 關( , open), ( , suburb);

6) Number/Pairing:

( , pair), ( , not), 齊( , equal), ( , two), ( ,

one), ( , three), ( , small), ( , flat), ( , wizardry).

Lord Kelvin, a famous British physicist, once said: “When you cannot express it in

numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind” (qtd. in Livio: 1). In order to

avoid a “meager and unsatisfactory” understanding of Pound’s knowledge about Chinese

ideogram, I have further reduced this listing into subcategories and counted their numbers:

1) Human (whole body, eye, beard, ear, mouth, breath, face, neck, hand, armpit, heart,

breasts, male reproductive organ, buttocksocks, foot, meat, bone; 18 subcategories in

total);

2) Animals (snake, bird, beast, dog, insect, sheep, shell, lizard, 8 subcategories in total);

3) Plants (bamboo, tree, grass, flower, crop, root, 6 subcategories in total);

4) Natural Phenomena (water, fire, jade, sun, moon, rain, 6 subcategories in total);
57

5) Human Productivity (spear, knife, axe, armor, container, boat, stick, plow, net, fabric,

land, 10 subcategories in total);

6) Number/Pairing (one subcategory in total).

The 243 characters in The Cantos can be separated into six main categories and 49

subcategories. As a general rule of thumb, most subcategories contain only one building block,

that is, one basic shape. For example, under the subcategory “Mouth,” fourteen characters share

one basic shape, ( , mouth). All of the following ideograms contain this basic shape:

諂( , slander), 辭( , speech), ( , wisdom), ( , name),靈

( , spirit), ( , old person), 誠( , sincerity), ( mouth),

( , each) , ( , speak), ( , respect), ( , house), 嗎(a

question word), 諭( , inform).

A basic shape can also be added, morphed, and reduced to form different words. For

instance, in the subcategory “eye,” “( , risk),” “憲( , law),” “見( , see),”

and “親( , intimate)” all sprout from the basic shape “eye.” This shape, when combined
58

with “sun” and “barrel,” forms “risk” and “law.” With two extra lines indicating vision range, it

expands to mean the action “to see.” And this changed “eye” can be further placed with “spice”

to form a new word, “intimate.”

Similarly, for the subcategory “fabric,” there are six characters but only two common

shapes “ ” and “ ,” “silk yarn” and “drape.” These two pictorial morphemes are also

connected as drapes are the end products of silk yarns. In other words, almost every basic shape

is cognitively easy for the human eyes to process and they are interrelated with each other.

Some subcategories might seem to have many different shapes, but the relationships

between them are very obvious. The subcategory “land/land development” has the greatest

number of basic shapes. Those shapes, however, are self-explanatory. “ ” is the “field,”

“ ” delineates the contour of a “building base,” “ ” means “some place high,”

“ ” apparently denotes a “flat land,” “ ” depicts an “intersection,” and “ ” is a

“door.” All of those shapes are images of human being’s physical surroundings.

In my discussion so far, an acute reader might have already detected a hesitation. What is

considered to be a basic shape? Defining what constitutes a basic shape and quantifying their

numbers in each category is a difficult undertaking. Should “ (silk yarn)” and “ (drape)” be

two basic shapes, since they have no apparent resemblances in line arrangement, or just one,

since both are indeed connected to fabric making? And since “ (field),” “ (base),”
59

“ (high place),” “ (flat land),” “ (intersection),” and “ (door)” all reflect

human surroundings, should they be considered as one basic shape or as totally different basic

shapes that have their own independent force that signifies, is signified, refers, and inter-refers?

This dilemma of deciding on and dividing basic shapes also exists in the first category

where we have the following 33 characters: ( , ghost), 長( ,long), ( ,

official), ( , good), ( , virtuous), ( , male), 婦( , wife),

( , letter), 堯( , high), ( , summer), ( , close), ( , body),

( ,first), ( , which/what), ( , live), ( , servant), ( ,

amiss), ( , extra), ( , teach), ( , handsome), ( , order),

( , human), ( , orphan), ( , corpse), ( , baby), 無( ,

nothing), ( , tired), ( , Buddha), ( bright), ( , filial piety),

( , light), ( , start).
60

It is easy to spot these basic shapes among them: (human), (dead or resting

human), (baby with a large head), (kneeling person), (tall and standing person).

In a way, each subcategory only employs one basic shape. In this case, all of the

reoccurring shapes represent a complete human, head, torso, and limbs and all. In photographic

terms, all of them are long shots of different human beings. Only, these shots capture different

types of human beings, some generic, some ugly, some feminine, some infantile, some proud,

some curled up, some fat, and some tall. ( , ghost), for instance, is a person with grizzly

hair and an out of proportion head, hence, it carried the sense of a horrifying ghost. ( ,

human), on the other hand, is sketchy and nondescript, therefore it represents any human being

with two walking legs. And the left part of “( , good)” and the right part of “婦

( , wife)”, with their curvy lines and kneeling posture, suggests a subordinate female.

In sum, of all the 243 Chinese characters listed in The Cantos, there are only 49 basic

shapes listed as below:

1) whole body, eye, beard, ear, mouth, breath, face, neck, hand, armpit, heart, breasts,

male reproductive organ, buttocks, foot, meat, bone (all related to human beings, 8 in

total);

2) snake, bird, beast, dog, insect, sheep, shell, lizard (all related to animals, 8 in total);
61

3) bamboo, tree, grass, flower, crop, root (all related to plants, 6 in total);

4) water, fire, jade, sun, moon, rain, (all related to natural phenomena, 6 in total);

5) spear, knife, axe, armor, container, boat, stick, plow, net, fabric, land, (all related to

human productivity, 10 in total);

6) abstract lines and shapes (all related to number/pairing, 1 in total)

Then Chinese ideograms are just like the the Roman alphabet in that only a few basic

building blocks are used to construct a language unit. Hence, Pound’s accurate comprehension of

the connections between Chinese written signs can be clearly explicated. Pound has his own

theory about the Chinese ideogram. This theory might not be approved by sinologists, but it

conforms to the visual cognitive laws of perception, especially the law of free association.

II. From Image to Vortex: Pound’s Leap Reexamed

“The thought of the tree is in the seed”


——Pound, 1914

This knowledge about the interrelationship between the Chinese ideograms’ basic

building blocks was not formulated during Pound’s time. The orthodox studies of Chinese

ideograms were still very much limited to the analysis done by Xu Shen (c.58-147). Xu’s

concept of 540 radicals out of 9,353 characters still dominates Chinese education today, despite

the fact that he had never seen the oracle carvings.

In fact, the organic nature of Chinese characters is still a philological concept much

limited to the field of Chinese etymology. As for the exploration of how exactly does the

intrinsic organic nature of this writing system permeate the Chinese psyche, we still have to wait
62

for the rise of interdisciplinary studies between Chinese etymology and other fields. This might,

it seems, take a long while. Chinese academics are still more interested in knowing the West than

diving into the ancient finds of oracle texts and swimming outward into aesthetics and

comparative studies.

Despite all these disadvantages and research delays, Pound’s 1913 encountering with

Fenollosa’s manuscripts brought about a big leap in his understanding of the organic mechanism

behind Chinese writing and the foundation of Chinese aesthetics.

In March of 1913, Pound had clearly formulated Imagism’s principles:

1. Direct treatment of the “thing” whether subjective or objective.

2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.

3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in

sequence of a metronome.

(Pound, “A Retrospect,” Poetry, March 1913)

Later that year, Pound acquired Fenollosa’s manuscripts. This is “a turning point not only

for Pound’s career, but also for Anglo-American Modernism” (Gu, 1002). Fenollosa’s treatises

on Chinese characters and poetry had a great influence on Pound, and subsequently, on English

verse through Pound’s innovations. Within this chapter, however, I will not go into details of this

influence but instead focus on the parallelism between Pound’s Vorticist poetics and his

understanding of Chinese writing.

In Vorticism, the poetic image is “…a radiant node or cluster…a VORTEX, from which,

and through which, and into which, ideas are constantly rushing” (Pound, Gaudier-Brzeska, a
63

Memoir, 92). This concept of “vortex” is similar to the rationale of the ideogram with its basic

shapes discussed in the first part of this chapter. As a building block, a Chinese root is a radiant

node, a cluster that fosters fresh ideas. It is a discrete entity but enclosed by and related to other

entities. For example, in The Cantos, ( , mouth) is the center of 諂( , slander),

辭( , speech), ( , wisdom), ( , name),靈( , spirit), ( , old

person), 誠( , sincerity), ( mouth), ( , each) , ( , speak),

( , respect), ( , house), 嗎(a question word), and 諭( , inform).

TTherefore, ( , mouth) is a radiant node that fosters new ideas/characters/words.

When further compared, Pound’s vortex parallels more with Chinese characters’ roots. In

the first Blast, Pound states that in a vortex “every concept, every emotion presents itself to the

vivid consciousness in some primary form. It belongs to the art of this form.” (The italics are

mine.) The Chinese character is also a primary form. It is a two-dimensional simple sketch of

human observation and comprehension. Pound also defined the vortex as “the point of

maximum energy,” and called the Vorticists to rely on the “primary pigment.” These terms of

“maximum energy” and “primary pigment” best describe the basic shapes of Chinese characters.

The basic roots such as ( , mouth), ( , sun), and (human) employ simple lines but

generates many complex characters.


64

In contrast to( , mouth), ( , sun), and (human), real images of a mouth, the

sun, and a human being might be vivid, clear, and specific, but those images were hard to share

across different regions and generations before the invention and popularization of photography.

The ideograms, though primary in many senses, have an organic structure that promotes creation

and dissemination.

According to Laszlo Géfin, Pound’s reading of Arnaut, Vidal, Cardenal, Sordello, and

Bertrans de Born revealed to him the discovery of their poetic method, the idea-image, which

shares certain features with the organic Chinese characters:

Their method was the creation of idea-image through the relation of compressed
metaphors. “Pound called it the ideogrammic method,” observes one critic, “but he
discovered it in Provence long before he came across the Fenollosa manuscripts.” While
this is an exaggeration, it is safe to say on the basis of the evidence that Pound’s mind
was prepared by his Provençal studies so that the seeds of Fenollosa’s essay fell on fertile
ground. (Géfin, 8)
Géfin also argues that “the method of the ideogram…is implicit in the early works on

romance in the discussion of the “luminous detail” the series of essays “I Gather the Limbs of

Osiris” (Géfin, 6). According to him, “the very basis of” Pound’s ideogrammic method is

“Pound’s intuitive affinity for description by particulars” which “is present in The Spirit of

Romance (1910) and in “I Gather the Limbs of Osiris” (1911-1912). These works, together with

his “Cavalcanti” essay, contain the fruits of his research in the romance tradition” (Géfin, 4).

There are also some interesting parallelisms between the idea of paideuma and the

Chinese ideograms as the records of their times. The knowledge of the Chinese ideograms as an

organic system, therefore, is important to access Pound’s poetic theories, his fascination with the

Orient, his remarkable strength in world cultural synthesis, and his consistent pursuit of magnetic

energy fields. In “A New Paideuma,” Pound says:


65

Looking eastward even my own scant knowledge of ideograms has been enough
to teach me that a few hours’ work on it is more enlivening, goes further to jog a man’s
fixations than a month’s work on a great Greek author. I don’t know how long such
enlivenment would endure. At the moment I see no end to it, I assert that for Europe and
for occidental man there is here an admirable means of getting out of his ruts and his
stupidities.

A sane university curriculum will put Chinese where Greek was, or at least put it
in the smaller position whereto has now fallen, that is as a luxury study.
(Pound, Selected Prose, 286)

In Pound’s eyes, the concept of paideuma has “the sense of the active element in the era,

the complex of ideas which is in a given time germinal, reaching into the next epoch, but

conditioning actively all the thought and action of its own time” (Pound, Selected Prose, 284) .

Chinese characters, as discussed in Chapter One, are products of the ancient divination culture.

Many basic shapes were actually “the active elements in the era.” The subcategory of

“Container” has the following shapes: , , , , and .

and , containers made of branches, possible formed earlier than , the ceramic

urn. The metal pots, and , should come the latest. Nevertheless, all of those shapes

reach “into the next epoch” (Pound, Selected Prose, 286), and they are the geminating seeds of

more characters.

In this light, it is easy to see Pound’s preferred paideuma for “the gristly roots of ideas

that are in action” and for his description of a vortex where “all experience rushes into this

vortex. . . . All the past that is vital, all the past that is capable of living into the future, is

pregnant in the vortex, NOW.” Both propositions are close to the organic quality of Chinese

characters.
66

III. Na-Ki as the Image of Paradiso: the End of a New Beginning

The complexity of The Cantos demands many book-length investigations and

explanations. In the next chapter, however, I will only focus upon the visual effects of the

Chinese texts in it. But, before I shift to a discussion of aesthetics, I would like to go back to

explore one more feature of Chinese ideograms, the silence of sound, which will lead us into a

preview and end view of the organic nature of The Cantos.

In chapter One, I reiterated Fenollosa’s point that Chinese ideograms are “arbitrary

symbols” that have no basis in sound” (Fellnollosa, 8). Yet I also insist that Sino-Tibetan sound

roots lay deep in the subconscious of Chinese poetics and still live actively in Modern Chinese.

To ultimately understand the Chinese ideograms as a record of voiced language that can be

pronounced and read aloud, one can not ignore the Tibetan culture. Hence, at the end of The

Cantos, Na-Ki, a region next to the Tibet, becomes a symbol of Paradiso. This is Pound’s resting

point in his inquiry into the complete picture of the Chinese mind and also an opening for future

intellectual journeys.

Pound’s choice of the last document mentioned in The Cantos is Joseph Rock’s Ancient

Na-Khi, Kingdom of Southwest China, after citing T.S. Eliot’s “These fragments I have shored

against my ruins” in “Wasteland”:

Bunting and Upward neglected,


all the resisters blacked out,
From time’s wreckage shored,
these fragments shored against ruin,
4-5
and the sun jih
new with the day.
Mr. Rock still hopes to climb at Mount Kinabalu
His fragments sunk (20years)
67

(Canto CX, 801)

Joseph Rock did research on the Na-Ki culture. To Pound, the final quest for the deep

roots of the Chinese ideogram has to be through the Na-Ki culture. In this culture, the ideograms

are still in their maturing state and people still speak a language similar to Tibetan. It is a node

where sounds and shapes merge and the tree metaphorically is still in its seed state.

Here, Pound leaves The Cantos at this hopeful beginning of new search. Since his

contact with Fenollosa’s notes in 1913, his eastward gaze upon the Chinese signs lasted half a

century and comes to its end in Paradiso.

Pound might be viewed as an amateur sinologist at best. His knowledge, appropriation,

and promotion of Chinese written signs, however, should not be examined for their errors. The

ideogram’s ubiquity and appeal are in accordance with the creative mode of our universe; so is

Pound’s poetics.

To conclude, Pound’s knowledge of Chinese ideograms and texts, therefore, should not

be dismissed as merely a copyist’s broken fantasy. Quite the contrary, his interest in reading and

using Chinese characters serves as an important case for cross-cultural studies. He understood

the organic nature of Chinese characters. Of the 243 characters in The Cantos, there are 49 basic

shapes. In its entirety, the Chinese written system employs about 200 basic roots; all of them

pertain to basic aspects of human life. The possibilities of the ideas imbedded in these Chinese

written concepts are infinite, a limitlessness that lays the foundation for Far Eastern aesthetics. It

is from these possibilities which Pound advances his formulation of a more befitting modernist

poetics.
CHAPTER THREE

THE CHINESE IDEOGRAM AS A CONTEXTUALIZING BUILDING BLOCK

As discussed in the previous chapter, The Cantos employs 243 characters that contain 49

basic roots. Pound’s use of those Chinese ideograms in this epic-length poem is a result of his

years of studies. Meanwhile, the Chinese character’s lucidity may have made it possible for him

to incorporate these symbols, though visually very different, into an Anglo/Western text.

The Chinese ideogram functions at multiple levels with other texts in The Cantos. First,

as a contextualizing building block, it is an inseparable part of The Cantos’ long semantic string,

not much different from the English, Italian, French or any other form of text. Secondly, it is a

co-text, helping the rest of the text to flow together, both visually and semantically. Moreover, it

provides intellectual and cultural inter-text for each canto and thus works as a bridge between the

East and the West. In other words, inside The Cantos, Chinese ideograms operate as both context

and co-text while they also point to other intellectual and cultural texts outside.

In this chapter, I will focus on Chinese characters as the contextualizing blocks.

I. Placement of Chinese Ideograms in The Cantos

The Chinese ideogram is obviously not the only non-English text in the multi-lingual The

Cantos. Italian, Greek, French, German, and Latin are seen throughout the whole poem. Both

Canto LXXII and Canto LXXIII, for example, are written entirely in Italian. Canto XLVII places,
68
69

for another example, English transcriptions and their Greek originals together as in

“…phtheggometha/thasson/φθεγγώµεθα θα + ̑σσου” and “Τυ Δώνα/ TU DIONA/Και

Μοῖραιτ̓ ’′Αδονιν/Kai MOIRAI' ADONIN” (Pound, The Cantos, 236). Also, half of Canto

XXXII’s first stanza is in French.

The interplay of English with other European languages is not unusual. Carmina Burana,

for example, contains several poems mixing Latin with Medieval German and French. Pound’s

incorporation of music score, club sign, Egyptian hieroglyphic, Persian characters, and Chinese

symbols, however, is unconventional. Of all these innovatively incorporated texts, Chinese

symbols are used most often.

Before Canto XXXIV, The Cantos contains no Chinese symbols. In this canto, after a

pyramid sign and right before the section ends, a Chinese symbol is first seen:

Firemen’s torchlight procession!


Proportioned to free inhabitants (Dec. 21. ’43)
Electro-magnetic (Morse)

Constans proposito
Justum et Tenacem
(The Cantos, 171)

“,” as explained in Chapter 2, means “letter/trust,” a perfect mirroring for the adjacent

“Constans proposito/Justum et Tenacem.”

At the end of Canto LI, two other Chinese ideograms appear: “”(“to rectify names”).

They summarize this canto’s discussion of usura or usury. The lines precedent to these two

ideograms reveal usura’s unjust course under a justfied name —peace:


Circling in eddying air; in a hurry;
The 12: close eyed in the oily wind
70

these were the regents; and a sour song from the folds of this belly
sang Geryone; I am the help of the aged;
I pay men to talk peace;
Mistress of many tongues; merchant of chalcedony
I am Geryon twin with usura,
You who have lived in a stage set.
A thousand were dead in his folds;
In the eel-fishers basket
Time was of the League of Cambrai:

(The Cantos, 252)

In the following canto section, after Pound explains his treatment of Chinese names, the

ideogram “”(“glory/illumination”) occupies half of the foreword for Canto LII -LXXI.

No one is going be content with a transliteration of Chinese names. When not


making a desperate effort at mnemonics or differentiating in vain hope of distinguishing
one race from another, I mainly use the french form. Our European knowledge of China
has come via latin and french and at any rate the french vowels as printed have some sort
of uniform connotation.

(The Cantos, 254)

“Bright, vide note on p. 42. Upper right, abbreaviated picture of wings; lower,
bird=to fly. Both F. and Morrison note that it is short tailed bird” (Fenollosa, 62,
Fordham UP edition).
The component ' bright ' in the second ideogram is resolvable into fire above a
man (walking). The picture is abbreviated to the light and the moving legs. I should say it
might have started as the sun god moving below the the horizon, at any rate it is the upper
part of the fire sign. (Fenollosa, 63, Fordham UP edition).
71

Here, “” (“glory/illumination”) is not directly related to the proceeding and following texts.

Terrell’s A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound even skips the explanation of this ideogram.

This ideogram, however, is very important as it is the one-word preview of the end of Canto

LXXI, the last canto of the Adams Cantos. It is also Pound’s Chinese equivalence of paideuma

that Pound explained before the Chinese and Adams Cantos: “Note that the final lines in greek,

Canto 71, are from Hymn of Cleanthes, part of Adams’s paideuma: Glorious, deathless of many

names, Zeus aye ruling all things, founder of the inborn qualities of nature, by laws piloting all

things”(The Cantos, 256).

In the first canto of the Chinese and Adams Cantos, another Chinese symbol “” (“to

stop,” 261) is also placed at the rear in a similar position to “” (“to rectify names,” 252) in

Canto LI.

In short, before Canto LIII, Chinese symbols are rarely deployed. Only four characters

appear: “”(“letter/trust”), “ ”(“glory/illuminatio n”), “”(“to stop”), and “ ”(“to rectify

names”); all of them are placed at the end of a poem with an explanatory note. While “

(“letter/trust”)” echoes the meaning of its adjacent lines, the latter three ideograms, however,

provide a new meaning. “”(“to rectify names,” 252) conclude Pound’s discussion of usury

in Canto LI while “”(“glory/illumination”) introduces Canto LII -LXXI as the canto of light.

From Canto LIII on, Chinese ideograms are incorporated into every canto except for

Cantos LXIV, LXV, LXXI, LXXII, LXXIII, LXXV, LXXXI, XCII, and CIII. In the drafts and

fragments of Cantos CX-CXVII, three pieces use Chinese signs. In other words, from Canto LIII
72

to Canto CXIX, 48 cantos use Chinese symbols, bringing the total number of cantos with

Chinese symbols to 50. No other non-European writing or non-literary sign is so widely used.

II. Two Patterns

The use of Chinese ideograms can be divided into these two patterns:

1) A Chinese character is inserted in the poetic flow without its Romanized form or

pronunciation.

2) A Chinese character is provided together with its Roman transliteration.

One might be tempted to make the generalization that the Chinese is used in the first

pattern as “text,” because it shares the same status as any Anglo, European, or non-literary text.

The Chinese used in the second pattern should be named, on the other hand, “co-text” since it co-

exists with its Romanized scripts.

These two patterns contain many variations, though some consist of very minute changes.

In the first pattern, for instance, an explanation or paraphrase of the character is sometimes

provided in the adjacent lines. And this explanation, sometimes hinted at the description,

sometimes clarified in translation, is in English, Latin, or other languages.

The second pattern, or the co-existence of Chinese characters and their pronunciation/

Romanization, also has a different textual organization and different semantic interplays.

Although most of the time a Chinese character is placed next to its pronunciation, Pound seems

to have no fixed rule as to its position. A character can be placed below, above, to the left of, and

to the right of its pronunciation. Sometimes, a character is even placed a few lines away from its

pronunciation.
73

The third and fourth sections of this chapter are detailed listings of these variations along

with their examples and functions.

III. Pattern One: Chinese Characters without

Pronunciation

In this category, a pronunciation or Romanization is absent when a character is inserted

into the text of The Cantos. Pound treats this character as a universal sign readable to all readers.

As discussed above,“”(“letter/trust,” 171), “ ”(“to rectify names,” 252), “

(“glory/illumination,” 254),” and “”(“to stop,” 261)” all end a poem o r an explanatory note;

none of them is accompanied by a pronunciation.

Throughout The Cantos, this pattern is used relatively less than the second pattern. From

Canto LIII on, only the following characters are used without any notes on pronunciation: “

/”(Kind folks use wealth to enrich themselves,

not the other way around,”290), “/”(“change,” 313), “”(“correct,” 352), “”(“middle,”

413, 738), “/” (“to show,” 449), “”(“sunset/do not,” 450), “/” (“honesty,” 474), “

/”(“smooth rhetoric,” 506), “/”(“yellow bird stop,” 507), “/

”(“how far,” 518), “ /”(“do not help growth,” 552), “”(“compassionate &

good,” 564), “”(“no. 1,” 564), “” (“virtue,” 566), “/

”(“reaching their ends that man and that woman, ” 567), “/”(“each

one grows at his place,” 568), “”(“virtue,”570), “/”(“spirit,” 571), “” (“ultimate, 573),

“” (“blood,” 573), “”( “slant,” 573), “”(“earth middle,” 574), “ ”(“respect,” 575),
74

“”(“spear,” 575), “”(“town,” 576), “”(“teach,” 579), “”(“hold,” 579), “”(“risk,” 579),

“”(“teach simple,” 581), “ /”(“constitution of lǚ,” 582), “”(“also favor

the look of one person,” 583) “/”(“machine,” 623, 766), “”(“letter/trust,” 584), “ ”

(“up,” 595), “”( “profit,” 595), “ ”(“stop,” 596), “”(“must,” 612), “”(“change,” 618),

“/”(“machine,” 623, 766), “”(“king,” 660, 661), “”(“root,” 660), “”(“new,” 662),

“/”(“intimacy is love and through esteem intimacy comes,” 696),

3
“”(“rectify names,” 702), “/”(“Old horse god does not lie down, ”

703), “”(“no,” 705, 748), “ /” (“question,” 708), “ ”( “reverence and filial piety,” 711),

“”(“field,” 711), “”(“money,” 711), “”(“do not,” 713), “” (“omen,” 729),

“”(“wizardry,” 758), “/”(“spirit,” 758), “” (“ghost flattery,” 768), “” (“the end

and the beginning,” 780), and “ / ” (“suburb and currency,” 787).

Moreover, in Canto LXXVII, “/”(“before and after,”), “/”(“how far,”

485), “”(“dawn,” 486), “”(“mouth,” 486), “/”(“it is

flattery to worship others’ dead ancestors,” 487), “”(“will,” 487), and “/”(“seal,” 488)

are also inserted into the text without a listing of the pronunciations. An explication of their

pronunciations and meanings, however, is attached at the end.

Altogether, characters used in Pattern One fall into the following types:

1) Translation as Explanation

3
Carroll F. Terrell’s translation in A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound (Terrell, 627).
75

In many cases, when pronunciations are absent, translations are offered to explain these

Chinese signs. As discussed previously,“(“letter/trust,” 171) echoes the meaning of its

adjacent lines. In Canto LXXXVI, “(“letter/trust,” 584) is also translated in the line above:

All, that has been, is as it should have been,


but what will they trust in
now?
(LXXXVI, 584)

Sometimes the translation is a direct translation; or, it takes on an associated meaning of a

character. “/”(“spirit,” 571), for instance, is translated as “sensibility” as in “our dynasty

came in because of a great sensibility”(LXXXV, 571) .

In some cases, a character can have many translations, all of them are correct such as

“”(“to stop,” 596):

Chief’s names on a monument,


Seepage,
the élan, the block, dissolution.

Or as Henry again: “we have, in a manner of speaking,


arrived.
Got to, I think he says “got to, all got to.”
(LXXXVII, 596)

Here, “” (“to stop,” 596) is delivered as “dissolution,” “arrived,” and “got to”; all of

them are correct translations.

Often, the translation is in non-English tongues. To list a few, “”(“new,” 695), is

rendered as “novelle” and “”(“middle,” 413, 738) is translated into the Italian word “mezzo.”
76

Sometimes, Pound uses a translation related to the actual meaning of the original Chinese.

“”(“respect,” 575), for instance, is translated as “sincere” as in “and you can know the sincere”

(LXXXV, 575) .

From time to time, the translation, as embedded in the lines, poses a challenge for its

readers. In many cases, a reader must have some familiarity with the characters inserted, even

though most basic components or word roots in Chinese, as discussed in Chapter 3, are visual

representations of human beings and their surroundings and require no further instruction.

Hence, The Cantos can pose quite a challenge to its Western readers even if the

explanation is offered in translations. Fortunately, Pound places many of his translations right

next to the characters. In the case of“ / ” (“field and money,” 711), for instance, such

confusion is eliminated as the translations are placed right next to the characters:

Filial piety is very inclusive: it does not include


Family squabbles over
land money, etcetera
Or pretendings.
(XCVIII, 711)

2) Account of Character Components as an Explanation

Sometimes, a description of character components is given instead of a translation.

“”(“hold,” 579) and , for instance, has the corresponding line, “as the hand grips the wheat,”

for the explication of its meaning:

King Owen had men about him:


Prince of Kouo,
Houng Ieo, San I Cheng
Sagetrieb
as the hand grips the wheat
Risked the smoke to go forward
77

(LXXXV, 579)

3) Description/Narration as Explanation

Sometimes, a Chinese word is neither translated nor dissected; rather, its meaning is only

illustrated in a narration or description.

A lizard upheld me
the wild birds wd not eat the white bread
from Mt Taishan to the sunset
From Carrara stone to the tower
and this day the air was made open
for Kuanon of all delights,
Linus, Cletus, Clement
Whose prayers,
the great scarab is bowed at the altar
the great light gleams in his shell
plowed in the sacred field and unwound the silk worms early
In tensile
in the light of light is the virtù
“sunt lumina” said Erigena Scotus
as of Shun on Mt Taishan
and in the hall of the forebears
as from the beginning of wonders
the paraclete that was present in Yan, the precision
in Shun and the compassionate
in Yun the guider of water
(LXXIV, 448-449)

Here, the word “/” (“to show”) is explained in several descriptions. One is about

nature. In this scene of sunset, silk worms and light are two primary images, which is the same
78

with the left side of “,” a shorthand picture of the sun shining upon two silk worms. Another

description here is about prayer. In this scene, light or a divine spirit infuses the space, opening

the air and gleaming on the scarab shell. This light is similar to the solar light, which is reflected

in the top part of the left side of“.” But more importantly , since this light is generated through

prayers, it is also an energy from the mind, hence, the right side of “”—“”(“head”) become

a visual summary of the essence of this light. Finally, descriptions about nature and prayer

illumination turn into a reminiscence of the virtues of historical figures. In classifying Yao’s,

Shun’s and Yu’s moral or intellectual strength, Pound demonstrates different signs of divine

energy in humans, which is an action of “:” to show.

4) A Hint as an Explanation

Sometimes, some explanatory notes are tangential, just enough to provide a clue for an

intelligent guess. As cited below, in Canto LXX, “” follows after the word “balance:”

To Price, 19 April 1790


aim of my life has been useful, how small in
any nation the number who comprehend ANY
system of constitution or administration
and these few do not unite.
Americans more rapidly disposed to corruption in elections
than I thought in ‘74
fraudulent use of words monarchy and republic
I am for balance
and know not how it is but mankind have an aversion
to any study of government
(LXX, 412-413)

“Balance” is not the literal translation of “” which means “middle” in Chinese. Yet

connotatively, both words share an overlapping semantic field.

5) Partial Explanation
79

Sometimes a phrase is partially explained. “/”(“do not help growth,” 552),

for instance, has only its first character-“”(“do not)-explained:

“Non combaattere” said Giovanna


meaning, as before stated, don’t work so hard
don’t

as it stands in the Kun-Sun Chow.


(LXXXIII, 551-552)

6) No Explanation

There are many characters in The Cantos left without any explanatory notes. “ ”(“to

rectify names,” 252), “(“glory/illumination,” 254),” and “ ”(“to stop,” 261),” for instance, all

provide a new turn in meaning but their meanings are not explained at all.

Occasionally, a repeated character would not be given because of previous explanations

or pronunciations. In that case, “”(“teach,” 579) is not explained because it has two

pronunciation notes two pages earlier.

Quite a few long phrases and complete sentences in Chinese ideograms are not clarified.

In particular, both “獲自盡匹夫匹婦/”(“reaching their ends that man and that

woman,” 567), and “各長于厥居/各”(“each grow at his place,” 568) are not explained

at all.

It is unclear why Pound left out the explanation. Maybe these long phrases and complete

sentences form their verbal strings, making the interruption of explanatory notes awkward. He

might also have left out the explanation due to concern about length. He might have expected an

audience who was curious about China. For example, “” (“virtue,”570) is associated with the
80

line above “Tch’eng T’ang for guide” (LXXXV, 570). “,” the name of a successful

emperor’s reign between 627A.D. and 649 A.D., is often viewed as another historic period no

less great than the time of “Tch’eng T’ang”(“ ,” -1646 B.C.), Shang Dynasty’s founding

father.

It is apparent, however, that Pound seldom gives an explanation of the basic shape of

Chinese characters. If a simple Chinese character is itself a basic root or just a slight variation of

a basic root, it often left without explanation. “” (“earth middle,” 574) is a case in point:

There be thy mirrour in men.

T’án
iue
p’ei
houâng
XIII,9 k’i p’eng

Odysseus “to no man”


(LXXXV, 574)

Also in Canto CII, “不” (“No”) is treated as an easy character that needs no explanation or

alphabetic pronunciation guide to lead the readers to its correct meaning:

she being of Cadmus line


The snow’s lace washed here as sea-foam.
不 But the lots of’em, Yeats, Possum, Old Wyndham
had no ground to stand on
(CII, 748)

Overall, in Pattern One, a character or several characters are inserted in the flow of the

text without pronunciation notes. In most cases, an explanation, description, or a hint is given to
81

illustrate the meaning of those characters. Nevertheless, quite a number of characters are not

clarified.

Variations of Pattern One are often interchangeably used. “/”(“question,” 708), for

instance, is hinted at by the question marks close to it, while its components are also explained:

Will you now bait him with nunneries?

that sign is a horse and mouth.


Sitting in heaven he needs you to build him a roof?
(XCVIII, 708)

“”(“sunset/do not,” 450), for another example, is given a literal translation in English:

“don’t.” “Sunt lumina,” a translation in Latin, is given too. An explanation of the image

suggested by the character for “a man on whom the sun has gone down,” is also listed. Moreover,

there are descriptions of different scenes or images such as “the sun dragging her stars” to further

reveal the meaning of “:”

Pisa, in the 23rd year of the effort in sight of the tower


and Till was hung yesterday
for murder and rape with trimmings plus Cholkis
plus mythology, thought he was Zeus ram or another one
Hey Snag wots in the bibl’?
Wot are the books ov the bible?
Name’em, don’t bullshit ME.
O’ΥΤIΣ
A man on whom the sun has gone down
The ewe, he said had such a pretty look in her eyes;

sunt lumina
that the drama is wholly subjective

sunt lumina
A man on whom the sun has gone down
Nor shall diamond die in the avalanche

Hooo Fasa, and in a dance the renewal
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with two larks in contrappunto


At sunset
ch’intenerisce
A sinistra la Torre
seen thru a pair of breeches.

the sun dragging her stars
A man on whom the sun has gone down
and the wind came as hamadryas under the sun-beat

(LXXIV, 450-451)

IV. Pattern Two: Chinese Characters as Supplementary Signs to Their

Pronunciations or Romanization

As mentioned above, Pattern One is used relatively less than Pattern Two in which

Chinese characters are used as supplementary signs to their Roman transcription. Throughout

The Cantos, Pound uses a great number of Chinese words. Some are names for people, places,

and historical events. Some are concepts, and some are Confucian quotations. Most of these

Chinese words are incorporated in their Romanized forms, or their pronunciations.

Similar to characters in Pattern One, those Romanized Chinese words are sometimes left

without any explanation. In Canto LVI, for instance, Chinese words sometimes move along

without any interruption of translation or description as in “Meng Long still held/against

Mogols./ Han, Lang, Quen, Kong, Mei, Kien, Tchong, King, Fou, Pong, Chun King” (LVI, 303).

Some of these Romanized Chinese words are also translated or described as the

characters used in Pattern One, especially if their ideogram equivalents are given. In “They who

are skilled in fire/should read tan, the dawn” (XCI, 635), “tan/ ” is translated as “dawn.”
83

Pound often gives both the pronunciation and the paraphrase at the same time. Also, “” (“to

demonstrate,” 650) in Canto XCII is provided with both the pronunciation “hsien” and the

translation “nuova vita.”

Not all the Romanized Chinese words, however, have their ideogram equivalents

attached close to them. Usually, when a Chinese ideogram is attached right next to its

Romanization, the purpose is either to clarify which exact word Pound intended to use, or it is

just for emphasis.

As discussed in Chapter 1, Chinese words can be pronounced in many ways. A word can

be read in Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Japanese, or Korean. The multitude of

pronunciations for one word, however, is in sharp contrast with the scarcity of phonetic variety

for one language/dialect’s entire vocabulary. In Mandarin, for example, only 407 sounds are used

to read its tens of thousands of characters. Even though Mandarin has four tones, the variety in

writing still outweighs the variety in sound. Often, only in the form of an ideogram can a word

be distinguished from another. For instance, “” and “/” share the same syllable “i/yi.”

Even though one is assigned the first tone and the other the fourth tone in Mandarin Chinese,

their pronunciation without tones will not reveal this difference. “” shows up four times (583,

620, 659, 664) in the whole poem while “/” appear seven times (583, 587,615, 647, 694,

709,710). Pound puts down the characters almost every time. “The Commissioner Iu-p’uh, ” in

another instance, is given as “” in Canto XCVIII (XCVIII, 700) because both “Iu” and

“p’uh” can sinify many different characters or words.


84

When characters work as visual aids, they function more like co-texts rather than contexts.

Since characters in Pattern One also assist and enhance the meaning of The Cantos, I will fully

illustrate these ideograms’ visual and cultural function in the next chapter. For the time being, I

will only focus on a detailed description of Pattern Two.

As mentioned above, a Chinese word, be it in the form of ideogram, Romanization, or

both, can be translated, described, hinted at, or left unexplained as characters in Pattern One. The

interplay between meaning and form for characters in Pattern Two is similar to what is in Pattern

One. Hence, instead of focusing on different types of interplay, I will concentrate on different

ways of pronunciating the characters.

1) Different Systems

There are several systems of Chinese Romanization of Chinese: Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-

Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh and other uncommon Romanization systems. Gwoyeu Romatzyh was

developed by Zhao Yuanren in the 1920s. Hanyu Pinyin is a later invention in 1958.

For the most part of The Cantos, Pound uses the Wade-Giles system. It was developed by

Thomas Francis Wade and refined by Herbert Allen Giles. Before 1979, it is used in several

standard reference books and in all books about China published in the West. To name a few,

“Iu-p’uh” for “” in Canto XCVIII, and “Tai Wu Tzu” for” ” in Canto XCIV are all

examples of the Wade-Giles Romanization.

Also, because of his studies of De Mailla’s Histoire Générale de la Chine and Pauthier,

Pound uses French pronunciations too. “ôu iu chouèi,” for instance, is the pronunciation for “

.”
85

Pound’s transcription also reflects dialectical differences. For instance, “ngò” for

“”(“self,” 577) is Cantonese. The Mandarin pronunciation is “wǒ.”

Sometimes, Pound’s transcription reflects other languages’ reading of Chinese characters.

Japanese pronunciation is especially seen often in The Cantos. In this case we see:

You cannot make mariners out of slaves


and the mud, mud, said Guinicelli
Mr Tyler
I
jin
(LXXXIX, 620)

Here, “jin” is a Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word “human.”

2) Tones

A large proportion of the Chinese pronunciations in The Cantos have no tones. But much

later in his life and work, Pound will give tones in form of superscript or description.

For instance:


Once gold was
by ants
out of burrows
not
pao three
This is not treasure.
Can you tell pao three from pao four, a wild cat:
Da radice toribida
Is no clarity.
(CIV, 760)

The tones of “pao three ()” and “pao four(


)” are given here in superscript.

Sometimes the tones are marked in numeric forms as in:


86

Public debt was extinguished. 1834.


ho 2
pi 4-5
yüeh 4-5
li 4
This quotation is not from Mr Webster.
(LXXXXIX, 615)

Occasionally, Pound will describe the tones in lines close by as seen below:
Also Antoninus as apex, but on slavery and on bhoogery…
Not un-man, my Estlin, but all-men
Asching
in the fourth
tone
(LXXXVIII, 601)

3) Distance between Ideograms and Their Pronunciations

Most of the time, ideograms and their pronunciations share the same physical vicinity.

Occasionally, they are placed at a distance. For instance, in Canto LVI, “” does not

follow the pronunciations immediately:

YAO, CHUN, YU controller of waters


Bridge builders, contrivers of roads
gave grain to the people
kept down the taxes

Hochang, eunuchs, taoists and ballets


night-clubs, gimcracks, debauchery
Down, down! Han is down
Sung is down
Hochang, eunuchs, and taozers
empresses' relatives, came then a founder
saying nothing superfluous

cleared out the taozers and grafters, gave grain


opened the mountains
Came taozers, hochang and debauchery
And litterati fought fiercer than other men to keep out the
87

mogul
drifting dung-dust from the North.
(LVI, 302)

V. Interchangeable Use between Two Patterns

On the whole, Pound uses these two patterns freely.

In Canto LXXXV, for instance, most characters are given a pronunciation. But “” in

the middle of the poem is given both a pronunciation and the English explanation of “whereby.”

Also in the case of “” (“grip risk,” 579), pronunciations, ideograms translations, and

descriptions of components all come together:

Sagetrieb
As the hand grips the wheat,
Risked the smoke to go forward

aperiens tibi animum”


(LXXXV, 579)

An example is in “” (“also favor the look of one person,” 583) where only

“” is given its pronunciation. But the line following these ideograms explains the meaning of

the whole Chinese sentence:

mao

It may depend on one man


…as in the case of Edwardus
and von Hoesch on the telephone:

(LXXXVI, 580)
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VI. Mistakes or Stakes?

At times, Chinese characters are only loosely associated with other texts in the

surrounding area. “何遠/” (“how far,” 518), for instance, is related to neither Mr. Beddoes

nor Mr. Eliot.

The bone luz, I think was his take off


Curious, is that not, that Mr Eliot
Has not given more time to Mr Beddoes
(T.L.) prince of morticians
where none can speak his language
centuries hoarded
to pull up a mass of algae
(and pearls)

or the odour of eucalyptus or sea wrack


cat-faced, croce di Malta, figura del sol
to each tree its own mouth and savour
“Hot hole hep cat”
or words of similar volume

to be recognized by the god-damned


or man-damned trainee
Prowling night-puss leave my hard squares alone
they are in no case cat food
If you had sense
You wd/come here at meal time
when meat is superabundant
You can neither eat manuscript nor Confucius
nor even the Hebrew scriptures
get out of that bacon box
contact W, 11 oh oh 9 oh
now uses as a wardrobe
ex 53 pounds gross weight
the cat-faced eucalyptus nib
is where you cannot get at it
(LXXIX, 518)
In this section, only “the cat-faced eucalyptus nib/is where you cannot get at it” is

somewhat connected to “/” (“how far” ). By placing “/” (“how far” ) so far

from its association, Pound might be playing a textual game with his readers in which “/
89

” (“how far” ) literally means “far for readers to get at it.” But this is also a risk too since both

Chinese and Western readers may miss this point.

This placement could well have been a mistake too. Pound might have meant to place “

/” (“how far” ) right next to “the cat -faced eucalyptus nib/is where you cannot get at it.”

“” (“virtue,” 566), on the other hand, can only be remotely inferred from the context:

Birds and terrapin lived under Hia,


beast and fish held their order,
Neither flood nor flame falling in excess"
i
moua
pou
gning
Perspicax qui excolit se ipsum,
Their writings wither because they have no curiosity,
This "leader", gouged pumpkin
that they hoist on a pole,
But if you will follow this process

not a lot of signs, but the one sign


etcetera
plus always and from
back to
Neither by chinks, nor by sophists,
nor by hindoo immaturities;
Dante, out of St Victor (Richardus),
Erigena with greek tags in his verses.
Y Yin sent the young king into seclusion
by T'ang Tomb to think things over,
that they make total war on CONTEMPLATIO.
(LXXXV, 565-566)

What does “” refer to here? What does “this process” mean? Does the process refer to the

cooperation between people as indicated in the components of”” (For the components, please

see the dictionary in Part Two.)? Or does it simply points to the action described above? Can
90

“” also point to the virtuous characters such as Yi Yin and Dante later on? It is hard to pin

down a definite reading here.

Similarly, “/” (“meaning/heroism,” 615) in Canto LXXXIX stands alone between

mentions of governing and historic black out.

In the following case, “” also does not function as an effective context:

’Aθήνη swung the hung judge


tuan, there are four of them.
chen, beyond ataraxia
From Charlemagne's grain price, Venice, Hansa,
to the forged Donation "of Constantine"
"Perchè in ordine?" (vuol metter le sue idee)
said Mussolini.
(LXXXIX, 621)

Sometimes, Pound seems to place an ideogram in the wrong place. For instance:
That Tch’eng T’ang

湯 overthrew Hia
Praestantissimos regere
(LXXXV, 575)

“” is just a part of “ ” and is not rela ted to the rest of the text. There is a possibility

that maybe Pound wants to emphasize that “” (“completion”) requires sharp actions such as

taking up spears to fight. Carroll Terrell also notices that “this text does not appear alone in the

Couvreur text but as a component in the next character.” He insists, however, that Pound “put

together” those elements to “say: ‘With his spear, Tch’eng T’ang overthrew Hia” (Terrell, 477).
91

Nevertheless, “湯” means “to kill/stab Tch’eng T’ang.” Therefore Terrell’s in terpretation is

incorrect.

In conclusion, throughout The Cantos, Pound creatively uses Chinese ideograms as

building blocks of this epic. His use of Chinese ideograms follows two patterns. In Pattern One,

a Chinese character is inserted in the poetic flow without its Romanized form or pronunciation.

In Pattern Two, a Chinese character is provided as a supplementary text to the Roman-

transliteration. Most ideograms, be they in Pattern One or Pattern Two, are given translations and

descriptions for their meanings. Sometimes, an ideogram is left without any explanation. There

are also a few places of ambiguity and confusion that leave his readers pondering whether they

are compositional stakes or mistakes.


CHAPTER FOUR

THE CHINESE IDEOGRAM AS COTEXT: POETICS OF VISUAL CERTAINTY


AND SEMANTIC COMPLEXITY

As discussed in Chapter Three, the Chinese ideograms are building blocks of The Cantos.

Semantically, these characters are an intrinsic part of The Cantos’ long verbal strings, similar to

other foreign texts. Being a language art, poetry relies mostly on its verbal components to

achieve its communicative purpose(s). The Cantos is no exception.

The Chinese ideogram also functions as a visual aid. Its intrinsic visual quality helps to

illustrate and highlight other texts. In that sense, it is a text and co-text at the same time.

Moreover, most ideograms in The Cantos are from Confucian canons. Therefore these

ideograms also function as an intertext, a gateway to a “new Greece” and a bridge between the

Chinese Confucian school of thought and a modernist’s extensive reflection on Western

civilization.

In 1981, Marjorie Perloff proposed a theory of the modernists’ poetics. She called it a

“poetics of indeterminacy” and listed Pound as its most prominent practitioner. According to

Perloff, “Pound violates the norms of the lyric, especially the Romantic lyric” (Perloff, The

Dance of the Intellect, 17). Donald Carne-Ross also points out “Pound’s offense against the great

principles of inwardness, of internalization that has put us at the centre of things and laid waste

the visible world” (Carne-Ross, 38-39).

92
93

The Cantos, as well as other modernists’ works such as T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and

William Carlos Williams’s Spring and All, do point out to the reader multiple directions of

decoding. The Cantos, however, goes beyond semantic indeterminacy when it embraces Chinese

ideograms whose intrinsic visual quality and organic nature give both certainty and complexity

to “the visible world.” In other words, Pound has never “laid waste the visible world.” Quite the

contrary, as a cotext, the Chinese ideogram brings visual lucidity to Western poetry.

Although poetry has long been regarded as an art that paints with words, the visual

lucidity of English verse was first facilitated in Pound’s poetic painting with Chinese characters.

The validity of Chinese characters as Pound’s poetic medium, however, seems dependent upon

the universal literacy of Chinese ideograms. After all, if Pound paints with Chinese characters,

his readers should at least be educated in this new medium. As Sun Hong states: “…most people

are not Chinese scholars. Without dictionaries and proper training, they have nothing but their

minds to rely on. Is there any hope for them to comprehend the Chinese characters in The

Cantos?” (Hong, 44).

Like the Impressionists’ brushwork that creates immediacy in viewing, however, Pound’s

inclusion of Chinese characters can also generate immediacy in aesthetic response to his poems

without soliciting his readers to further their studies of Chinese characters.

For instance, in Cantos LXVII, “” is inserted:

“” clear
as to definitions
CHING
(Cantos LXVII, 387)
94

“,” as explained in the dictionary, is composed of two images: a block and a foot.

Together these two images mean “to stop at the right place,” hence it means “correct.” Canto

LXVII is a poem of reflection on authority. Revolving around John Adams’s argument for

judiciary independence, it contains many historic events and characters but rarely any “lucid”

images.

Even readers who do not know Chinese can have an understanding of this sketch of lines

crosing, “”. Thus the semantic certainty in Pound’s work actually invites complexity in reader

reponses. This clear image, as paradoxical as it might seem, in fact opens more room for

meaning. Does Pound intend to say that all definitions point to one correct understanding? Does

he make this comparison of an Eastern symbol and the Western multi-syllabic word definition a

starting point for intercultural reflections?

Also, as mentioned in both Chapter One and Chapter Three, a Chinese character can be

distanced from its original images but still retain its portal of meaning or, web of possible

meanings. “,” for instance, can also point to a messy placement of lines. Following this line of

reasoning, a reader can further inquire about Pound’s intention. Maybe he wants to express the

idea that definitions can be deceptions too? When taking the whole of Canto LVII and the rest of

the Adams cantos into consideration, can Pound’s poetic strategy be seen as “”, parallel or

conciliating ideas crossing and reaching a holistic rightness?

Paradoxically, the answers to these questions can be either positive or negative, or even

both. The indeterminacy here points us back to Perloff’s “poetics of indeterminacy.” Whether a

reader can pin down the answers or exhaust the possibilities of questions, however, the image
95

“” remains concrete and clear. Semantic indecisiveness is thus “compensated” with a visual

certainty.

Not all the ideograms will, however, add that much complexity to the text of The Cantos.

Let us look at more examples to see in what ways Chinese ideograms bring visual certainty and

semantic complexity to The Cantos.

I. 靈 and Sensibility: the Game of Free Association

Canto LXXXV opens with a Chinese character靈:

LING2

Our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility


All there by the time of I Yin
All roots by the time of I Yin
Galileo index’d 1616,
Wellington’s peace after Vaterloo
chih3

(Canto LXXXV, 563)

“靈” takes up four lines in space and is very important in this canto. In Part Two, this

character’s entry is listed as:

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)


Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)
Meaning: spirit
96

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two persons +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to
pray for rain= to invoke spirits for rain=spirit
Page: 563, 572, 575, 580, 695, 758, 760

On the surface, this character might be very elusive for any one who is not trained in the

Chinese language. A more careful look, however, will reveal its simplicity, especially when it is

enlarged. Maybe Pound demands that his reader joyfully treat different layers of this visual

semantic cake to a thorough examination.

Vertically, “” can be divided into the following connecting layers:

()=(rain)+(three mouths) +(witchcraft)

Horizontally, each layer is composed of one or a few of the basic shapes discussed in Chapter

Two:

Layer 1) (rain)= (frame)+ (water/rain drop);

Layer 2) (three mouths) = (mouth)+(mouth)+(mouth);

Layer 3) (witchcraft)=(craft ruler)+(to follow)= (craft ruler)+[(human)+

(human)]

“ ,” “ ”, “”, “”, and “” are all basic , easily recognizable signs. Together they form

a clear picture of men, or crafty, smart men calling for rain. It is partially translated in the key

word of the next line, sensibility. In Chinese folklore, only the most sincere petition of the people

will make the Heavenly God, or Shang Di, grant them the much desired rain. It is through

emotions that people and the Heavenly God bond. Hence, “” depicts a more vivid picture of

the Zhou Dynasty’s sensibility.


97

After Xia (ca. 2000-1500 B.C) and Shang (1700-1027 B.C.), the Zhou Dynasty is the last

of China’s pre-fedual dynasties. It was also divided into West Zhou (1027-771 B.C.) and East

Zhou (770-221 B.C.). East Zhou had a nominal central government, and its warring states

forsook most of the social orders established by King Weng of the West Zhou Dynasty. As

discussed in Chapter One, the cultural change between the Shang and Zhou dynasties is very

significant in Chinese history. The divination-frantic Shang was culturally replaced by the more

rational and structured Zhou. Yet, similar to Christ’s replacement of Dionysus, Zhou’s more

stratified and rigid social order never wiped out the undercurrent of the free-spirited Shang.4

Sense and sensibility are just two sides of a coin. In the last Chinese dynasty, one of the

emperor’s duties as the Son of Heaven was still to pray for rain when necessary. The core of this

royal rain-praying ritual is earnest and emotional sincerity. (For instance, emperors must bathe,

change, fast, and abstain from sex before entering the praying site.)

Therefore, the ideogram “” offers a vivid sketch of Shang shamanism, and a good

reminder of what led to a rational state. In that sense, Canto LXXXV, like a movie, opens with a

rain-praying scene in the frame of an ideogram. Hence, the first seven lines of Canto LXXXV

can be read as follows:

Some smart people shout skyward


From a land parched
“Heaven, have mercy on us!”
Our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility
All there by the time of I Yin
All roots by the time of I Yin
Galileo index’d 1616,

4
In his 1920 poem “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley,” Pound wrote: “Christ follows Dionysus, / Phallic and ambrosial /
Made way for macerations; / Caliban casts out Ariel.” Interestly, Confucius (551-479 B.C.) also embraced the Shang
culture while upholding the West Zhou Dynsty’s social order.
98

Wellington’s peace after Vaterloo


Stopped.
[Changes are indicated by the italics.]
(Canto LXXXV, 563)

Like“(right)” in Cantos LXVII, the ideogram “” here adds more complexity to the

text by evoking a scene before “our dynasty.” Whether a reader is familiar with the dynastic and

cultural change between the Zhou and the Shang, “” provides a visual co -text to the rain-

praying scene and therefore a link to Zhou’s sensibility, the keyword in the next line.

This link can have as many contours as a reader’s free associations can come up with.

The meaning of “” is derived by means of the free association of five ba sic signs. A reader

might see the mouth sign as the most prominent one and therefore see “voicing” and

“sensibility” as two ends of a semantic bridge. A reader might also focus more on the rain sign

and the crouched human sign, and the connection between the ideogram and the next line might

become something like “our dynasty came in because of a great sensibility to human suffering.”

Unlike “(right),” however, “” does not bring too much indecisiveness to the meaning

of those lines and therefore might not be able to serve as a primary example of Perloff’s “poetics

of indeterminacy.” It is a much more descriptive and concrete ideogram than “” though the

former is more structurally complicated. As a picture, “” contains more details and provide s a

more definite ambience.

This visual certainty is very similar to the cinematic art. In a certain sense, The Cantos is

like a movie trailer. Different episodes denote and connote different thoughts, moods, and

energies. Dependent upon the reader’s free association, an ideogram might provide a image but

still be able to infuse many possible meanings in the scene.


99

II. and Dawn: the Universal Scene and Thought Print

In the middle section of Canto XCI, Pound wrote:

Bright hawk whom no hood shall chain,


They who are skilled in fire
shall read tan, the dawn.
Waiving no jot of the arcanum
(having his own mind to stand by him)
As the sea-gull Kάδµου θυγάτηρ said to Odysseus
KADMOU THUGATER
“get rid of paraphernalia”
TLEMOUSUNE
And that even in the time of Domitian
one young man declined to be buggar’d.
(Canto XCI, 635)

This image refers to dawn. So the lines above can be rewritten in the translation and

paraphrases as:

They who are skilled in fire


shall read this scene when the sun departs from the horizon, the dawn
Waiving no jot of the mystery of nature
(having his own mind to stand by him)
As the sea-gull, daughter of Camdus, said to Odysseus
Daughter of Camdus
“get rid of the clothes
Calypso had given you”
“MISERY TO BE SUFFERED WITH PATIENCE”
And that even in the time of Domitian
one young man declined to be buggar’d.
[Changes are indicated by the italics.]

Or better, since is a sketch of the sun departing , those lines can further be rewritten as:

They who are skilled in fire


100

shall read , the dawn


Waiving no jot of the mystery of nature
(having his own mind to stand by him)
In those lines, “” is listed together with its pronunciation and translation. It seems that

Pound does not need to write “the dawn” three times. The dawn imagery might remind a loyal

reader of Homer of a frequent line — “When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shone once

more” — or this less used yet equally stunning image of a sunrise:

As the sun sprang up, leaving the brilliant waters in its wake,
Climbing the bronze sky to shower light on immortal gods
And mortal man across the plowhands ripe with grain
(The Odyssey, Book Three, 107)

“” as a cotext, however, is indispensable. By providing “tan,” Pound already connects

a well-known Western image with an eastern word. The connection can only be embodied and

supercharged in the shape of “.”

The upper part of this ideogram indicates a sun, and the lower part the horizon. As a

whole, the image indicates the energetic sun pushing the darkness away as it departs from the

horizon. Sun rays are much like forceful or lively fingers. Therefore, we see Homer’s sunrises

often involve images of fingers. As an image of the sunrise, “” bears the universal thought

print. Pound’s account of “the dawn” and of Odysseus’s twists and turns, therefore, once again

immortalizes Homer’s famous stories and makes Odysseus’s story a universal human theme.

Moreover, in terms of poetic technique, incorporating a Chinese ideogram might serve

another purpose. To quote once again lines like “When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers

shone once more” might sound trite to Pound. He seems to reserve his poetic energy, similar to a

Noh playwright, for the highlights of an event.


101

III. More Ways of Cotexting

After a detailed discussion of “” in Cantos LXVII, “” at the beginning of Canto

LXXXV, and “” in the middle of Canto XCI, the functions of Chinese ideograms can be

briefly summarized as:

1) providing multiple directions in meaning;

2) rendering an ambience for free association;

3) connecting previously disjunctive yet highly similar imageries.

There are, nevertheless, other ways of illuminating.

Take “” in Canto LXXXIX as an example, the ideograms given here form a

sentence “why should (we) talk about interest?” This sentence complements the previous line:

“Public debt was extinguished.1834” (Canto LXXXIX, 615) and validates the next line “This

quotation is not from Mr Webster” (Canto LXXXIX, 615). The functionality of “” is

similar to 3) in the brief summary above, only these four characters connects thoughts rather than

images and they also further the discussion of public debt by bring up the importance of interest-

free lending.

Even a reader equipped with a companion book might not understand the meaning of “

” at first glance. He or she by free association can guess from the basic signs such as “

(human),” “(heart), ” “(mouth),” “(crop/grain) ,” and “( , knife)” that Pound might be

proposing a more reasonable or humane public credit system based on the natural rhythm of

agriculture instead of on human sacrifice.


102

Therefore, “” serves multiple purposes and it is hard to place it in the three

categories summarized above. In fact, all the Chinese ideograms in the The Cantos are multi-

tasking cotexts of different functions.

So is the case of “” in Canto CVII:


(Tenth, Paradiso, nel Sole)
non per color, ma per lume parvente
Custumier…
de la foresta 14
are yellow-green after sunset H
in politique capacity a king dies not 3
ancient eit franchies,
ne injuste vexes
progress ostendunt
Magna Charta, chap XII
periplum, assie in periplum
and King also was minister
pen
the root is that charter.
(Canto CVII776-777)

“” in Chinese can mean both “root” and “book/charter.” Pound uses the oneness of this

Chinese character’s two meanings to drive home his claim that nature and law are one. “” is

also an image of a tree, so it can also connote growth, process, and balance. Therefore, “”

unites almost all the keywords here. Without this cotext, a reader would miss the key elements

that flow freely in an organic poetic and ideological structure.

Rather than uniting key elements, “ (close to compassion) ” and “(one

person)” seem quite independent from the rest of text in Canto XCV:

That the crystal wave mount to flood surge


4
chin
103

hu 1
jên 2
the light there almost solid.
YAO’S worry: to find a successor

& the three years peace we owe Windsor


’36-‘39
(Canto XCV, 664-665)

“(close to compassion) ” seems quite unrelated and “” is the red uced and

redundant follower of “a successor.” What are these Chinese ideograms attempting to achieve?

What do they contribute to the meaning of these lines and the whole Canto XCV? If there are

indeed irrelevant pictures here, where should they be placed? Must physical proximity dictate

Chinese ideograms’ cotextuality to our imagination?

The answer to the last question is apparently no. A reader of The Cantos must travel

according to Pound’s “periplum” and be ready for a return visit. Canto XCV’s first few lines

inform us that “LOVE, gone as lightning, / enduring 5000 years. / Should the comet cease

moving / or the great stars be tied in one place!” (CantoXCV, 663). “(compassion)” is also

“love” in Chinese. And “5000 years” alludes to the Chinese self-proclaimed duration of their

civilization. But soon Pound leaves the Chinese theme in The Cantos and he moves to Delacroix,

Dante, John Adams, Desmond Fizgerald, and many other Western figures. Yet, the Chinese

water theme in the opening does not evaporate into the air, it returns as rain or water that brings

about a paradisal scene in “the crystal wave mount to flood surge.” In between the “wave” and

“the light” only “LOVE” or “ (compassion)” can be solid. The forty-one lines in between the

China theme and three Chinese ideograms do not obstruct this truth. Clearly Pound thinks that

these forty-one lines are close or “(close)” enough to his reader to travel back to the China

theme.
104

In the case of “ (one person),” however, the proximity rule still seems to work. “

(one person)” can be seen as the Chinese recap of “a successor.” Yet in the next two lines,

King Edward VIII’s “instrumental” role “in keeping WWII from starting”(Terrell, 688) make the

presence of “” important. The stress of “a successor” should fall on “a.” Semantically, it

seems better to place “” after “Windsor.” Nevertheless, this rearrangement might not yield

the same weight on the stress of “a successor,” and it might make the transition between a

Chinese emperor’s worry and King Edward VIII more abrupt.

After the above analyses, “(close to compassion) ” and “(one person)” seem

quite deeply linked with, rather than somewhat independent from, the rest of the texts in Canto

XCV. As for their functionality, I believe a creative reader can find more possibilities besides

what I see as a poet’s witty hint of poetic proximity and quasi-dangerous arrangement of a

connecting point. Pound’s poetry so often invites the reader to play a mind game.

Often, Pound’s poetic mind games are G-rated; players of all different levels can

participate. The “(to accomplish) ” at the end of Canto LXXVII is a excellent case in point:

bringest to focus
ch’êng Zagreus ch’êng
Zagreus
(Canto LXXVII, 495)

For readers without any Chinese background, the shape “” might look like spear-shaped

objects winging the phrase “bringest to focus.” Since “” means “to accomplish,” a reader who

understands Chinese might think that the two “s” are there to emphasize bringest. Someone

who is well educated in ancient Chinese, however, would soon spot a phrase in the two “s”
105

and reach a utterly different conclusion. (“(to accomplish) ” is the original form for “(city) ”

and “(sincerity). ” Therefore “” can be read either as “to build a city” or “to obtain

sincerity.”)

Sometimes, even omission of ideograms provides a hint for reflection. In this canto, the

Shang Dynasty is missing due to “no further necessity to repeat” because “the pivotal dynasty

and its spirit of renewal was already represented…in its founder Cheng Tang’s admonition

‘Make It New’”(Hong, 51).

With the Chinese ideograms, the cotexting invites a mind game, of course. Sometimes,

they are there just to summarize a certain passage. In the same Canto LXXVII, for instance, the

vertically arranged “(To worship another’s ghost is flattery.)” only

summarizes the lines near by.

All in all, Chinese ideograms serve as cotexts with different functions. They can provide

multiple directions in meaning, render ambience for free association, connect images and

thoughts, add new proposals, connect all the key elements, draw the reader into a mind game,

summarize, and accomplish many other tasks. In other words, Chinese ideograms in The Cantos

are versatile. By incorporating them into an English verse, Pound did “make it new” with their

almost infinite reading possibilities.

There are also many other non-Chinese cotexts in The Cantos. Both Canto XCIV and

Canto XCVII, for example, contain an Egyptian hieroglyphic sign— . Canto XXII has a club

sign too:
106

(Canto XXII, 103)

Both the hieroglyphic sign and the club sign are visual aids too, illustrating, explaining, and

enhancing other texts. The similarities and differences between Chinese and non-Chinese

cotextualities should be an interesting new area for future investigations.


PART TWO
PART TWO

This part of my dissertation is a mini-dictionary of all the Chinese characters, in the order

of their appearances, used in The Cantos. For each character, forms, pronunciations, meaning,

and explanations of components are given as well as the page number(s) and citation frequency.

Pound uses only the traditional form, also called the full form. The simplified characters,

though invented only five decades ago and not known to Pound, are also listed here due to their

popularity in mainland China. Ancient forms are listed in chronological order, in other words,

oracle bone characters come before bronze inscription characters and before seal characters.

Most characters matured at the stage of seal characters around ninth century A.D. Their shapes

can easily be connected with both the traditional and simplified forms listed here. Therefore this

chapter will only give the necessary ancient form(s) up to the seal character. For example, if an

oracle form is sufficiently similar to the form used by Pound in The Cantos, both the bronze

inscription and seal forms will be left out. Likewise, if a character was developed later, only the

most ancient form will be given.

As discussed in Chapter One, a written sign can be assigned various pronunciations, be

they Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or other. It is, obviously, impossible and pointless

to record all of them here. Pinyin, mainland China’s alphabetic spelling of written words, is

given first as Pinyin is more widely accepted among modern readers. Pound’s pronunciations are

given after the Pinyin.

108
109

In general, only the core meaning is given. Since many Chinese words are homonyms, a

complete catalog of all the meanings in one character can only distract readers’ attention away

from the character as a textual piece of The Cantos.

When explaining the components of each character, a mathematical formula is used so

that readers can see how these parts add to the core meaning. Space is a sure and fine guide line

for the division of parts. For instance, ,” also as , is spliced into a left side and a right

side. Hence the formula of explanation runs as follows: two feet + (earth +sheep+ foot) = to

arrive at a place where sheep can be herded =to arrive.

After this brief note on the structure of organization, here is the mini-dictionary of

Pound’s Chinese signs in The Cantos:

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: xn(Pinyin)

Explanation: human being + (main idea+ pattern +mouth) =human being + speech=message/trust

Page: 171, 584

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct


110

Page: 252, 333, 352, 382, 387, 400, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 252, 333, 382, 400, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 261, 507, 563, 573,591, 596,645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character:堯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yáo (Pinyin); YAO (Pound’s)

Meaning: high and wide, also the name of a legendary ruler

Explanation: pieces of land+ a plateau = high and wide

Page: 263, 302, 309

Total Citation Time(s): 3 Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)


111

Pronunciation: shùn (Pinyin); CHUN(Pound’s)

Meaning: grass, also the name of a legendary ruler after Emperor Yao
Explanation: square land with dots +two hands =grassland/lawn/to tidy up a land

Page: 263, 302,309

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yǔ (Pinyin); YU (Pound’s)

Meaning: a kind of insect, also the name of the ruler after Emperor Shun

Explanation: a bug

Page: 263, 302

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: go/ho (Pinyin); KAO (Pound’s)

Meaning: river bank/high/eminent/alternate, also the name of Emperor Gao/Kao

Explanation: (ray+sun) + (tree+root) =sunlight + tree root =deeply rooted growth= river
bank/marsh/ high/eminent /alternate

Page: 264

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: táo (Pinyin); YAO (Pound’s)

Meaning: earthenware/happy/joyful/to move and influence a person


112

Explanation: place+ urn = to make a urn out of earth mud = earthenware

Page: 264

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin (Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 265, 278, 591, 649, 662, 695, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 265, 591, 649, 662, 676, 738, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xià (Pinyin); Hsia (Pound’s)

Meaning: summer, also the name of the Xia Dynasty

Explanation: people from the Middle Kingdom (people with big heads and four limbs) =grand
people = prime =summer

Page: 265
113

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōu (Pinyin); Chou, TCHEU (Pound’s)

Meaning: complete, also the name of the Chou Dynasty

Explanation: a raft= a circuit/complete/all around/to provide for

Page: 268, 274, 309

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhòng (Pinyin); Chung (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle son

Explanation: a human being + (a block + a line in the middle) = the middle son

Page: 272, 308

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: ní (Pinyin); Ni (Pound’s)

Meaning: to get close, later became the title for Buddhist nuns

Explanation: a corpse+ a dagger = to become closer from behind = to get close

Page: 272, 308

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)


114

Pronunciation: zhōu (Pinyin); Chou, TCHEU (Pound’s)

Meaning: complete, also the name of the Chou Dynasty

Explanation: a raft= a circuit/complete/all around/to provide for

Page: 274, 268, 309

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 278, 265, 591, 649, 662,695, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: rén (Pinyin); jen, jên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: compassion

Explanation: a human being + two = compassion between people = compassion

Page: 290, 564, 649, 664, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: zhě (Pinyin)

Meaning: this one/this thing

Explanation: flaming bush+ mouth = something prominent = the thing/person/idea itself


115

Page: 290

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yǐ (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: by means of/because of

Explanation: image of a hook = to search for with a hook = by means of/because of

Page: 290, 567, 656, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: 財 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: cái (Pinyin); ts’ai3 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wealth

Explanation: shell+ lumber= money +commodity = wealth

Page: 290, 656, 659

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 發 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: fā (Pinyin); fa, fa1-5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: to develop

Explanation: two feet+ a bow +two hands=to string a bow = to develop

Page: 290, 656, 659, 675

Total Citation Time(s): 4


116

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: shēn (Pinyin); chenn (Pound’s)

Meaning: body

Explanation: profile of a person with a big belly= body

Page: 290, 574

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: bù (Pinyin)

Meaning: no/not

Explanation: a flower bud = the beginning of something = the opposite of something

Page: 290, 705, 748

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character:堯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yáo (Pinyin); YAO (Pound’s)

Meaning: high and wide, also the name of a legendary ruler

Explanation: pieces of land+ a plateau = high and wide

Page: 302, 263, 309

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: shùn (Pinyin); CHUN(Pound’s)


117

Meaning: grass, also the name of a legendary ruler after Emperor Yao
Explanation: square land with dots +two hands =grassland/lawn/to tidy up a land

Page: 302, 263, 309

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yǔ (Pinyin); YU (Pound’s)

Meaning: a kind of insect, also the name of the ruler after Emperor Shun

Explanation: a bug

Page: 302, 263

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhòng (Pinyin); Chung (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle son

Explanation: a human being + (a block + a line in the middle) = the middle son

Page: 308, 272

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: ní (Pinyin); Ni (Pound’s)

Meaning: to get close, later became the title for Buddhist nuns

Explanation: a corpse+ a dagger = to become closer from behind = to get close

Page: 308, 272


118

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:堯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yáo (Pinyin); YAO (Pound’s)

Meaning: high and wide, also the name of a legendary ruler

Explanation: pieces of land+ a plateau = high and wide

Page: 309, 263, 302

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōu (Pinyin); Chou, TCHEU (Pound’s)

Meaning: complete, also the name of the Chou Dynasty

Explanation: a raft= a circuit/complete/all around/to provide for

Page: 309, 268, 274

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: shùn (Pinyin); CHUN(Pound’s)

Meaning: grass, also the name of a legendary ruler after Emperor Yao
Explanation: square land with dots +two hands =grassland/lawn/to tidy up a land

Page: 309, 263, 302

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)


119

Pronunciation: hàn (Pinyin); HAN (Pound’s)

Meaning: wide water, a river, also a dynatic name and the name for the largest ethnic group in
China

Explanation: water + (grass +middle +earth+ grass) = water+ the broadness of a water body =
wide water

Page: 309

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 變(traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: biàn (Pinyin)

Meaning: to change

Explanation: two silk yarns+ a hand=turning the silk yarns = to change

Page: 313

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 333, 252, 352, 382, 387, 400, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)


120

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 333, 252, 382, 400, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 333, 252, 382, 400, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fú (Pinyin); FU (Pound’s)

Meaning: happiness/fortune

Explanation: drapery from heaven + a full wine urn= ancestral blessing+ being rich
=happiness/fortune

Page: 338

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: chá (Pinyin); tcha (Pound’s)

Meaning: tea

Explanation: grass + a human being+ tree= tree leaves that can be eaten by men = tea
121

Page: 341

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional an d simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 352, 252, 333, 382, 387, 400, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 382, 252, 333, 352, 387, 400, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 382, 252, 333, 400, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 5


122

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 387, 252, 333, 352, 382, 400, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 400, 252, 333, 352, 382, 387, 577, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min (Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 400, 252, 333, 382, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)


123

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 413, 474, 484, 496, 560, 570, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 449, 570, 572, 632, 650, 713

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: mò (Pinyin)

Meaning: do not

Explanation: image a sun set under grass = dusk = the end of a day = do not do something in the
dark = do not

Page: 450

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle


124

Page: 474, 413, 484, 496, 560, 570, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: 誠 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: chéng (Pinyin)

Meaning: sincerity

Explanation: (main idea+ pattern+ mouth) + (spear+ shelf) = speech + finished work = to
accomplish things with a speech = sincerity

Page: 474

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 484, 413, 474, 496, 560, 570, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simp lified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiān (Pinyin)

Meaning: first

Explanation: image of a person with hair = the first born = first

Page: 485, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2


125

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: hòu (Pinyin)

Meaning: behind/after

Explanation: human being upside down +mouth = the back opening of a human body = hind =
behind/after

Page: 485, 496, 767

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (seal)

Pronunciation: hé (Pinyin); ho2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: which

Explanation: person + person carrying two baskets = person +to carry something heavy = person
+ to be able to = which one is able to = which

Page: 485, 496, 518, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 遠 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yuǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: far

Explanation: images of feet all around the sun = walking all day = far

Page: 485, 496, 518

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)


126

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise

Page: 486, 496, 574, 635, 695, 697, 699, 743

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: kǒu (Pinyin)

Meaning: mouth

Explanation: image of a mouth = mouth

Page: 486, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fēi (Pinyin); féi (Pound’s)

Meaning: not

Explanation: image of two identical human beings/ribs = together = not the only one = not

Page: 487, 496, 586

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: qí (Pinyin); k’I (Pound’s)

Meaning: that, his, its, her, their


127

Explanation: image of a braided container = things that contain other things = that, his, its, her,
their

Page: 487, 496, 574

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: guǐ (Pinyin)

Meaning: ghost/the deceased one

Explanation: image of a person on +knees with frizzy hair on a huge head = ghost

Page: 487,496, 768

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: ěr (Pinyin)

Meaning: and

Explanation: image of beard = something connected to face = connected= and

Page: 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jì (Pinyin)

Meaning: to worship

Explanation: (meat +table) +hand = to put meat on the table = to offer food with respect = to
worship

Page: 487, 496


128

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhī (Pinyin); tcheu (Pound’s)

Meaning: to go/of

Explanation: image of a foot on earth = to go = of (connecting)

Page: 487, 577, 679

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: 諂 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: chǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: to flatter

Explanation: (main idea+ pattern +mouth) + (person + fire pit/trap) = to trap someone with
words = to flatter

Page: 487, 496, 768

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yě (Pinyin)

Meaning: also

Explanation: image of a snake = long and meandering things = somewhat connected = also

Page: 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2


129

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhì (Pinyin); chih4 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wish/aspiration

Explanation: foot +heart = where heart stops = wish/aspiration

Page: 487, 496, 592

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fú (Pinyin)

Meaning: letter case/to fit

Explanation: two bamboo leaves + (human +hand) = bamboo + to give someone = to give
someone a bamboo case = a letter case/to fit

Page: 488, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: 節 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jié (Pinyin)

Meaning: to divide/to cut down

Explanation: two bamboo leaves + (bamboo stem+ horizontal plane of a bamboo node) =
bamboo knot = to divide/to cut down

Page: 488, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)


130

Pronunciation: chéng (Pinyin); ch’êng, Tch’eng, TCH’ENG (Pound’s)

Meaning: to accomplish

Explanation: image of a spear resting on a shelf = finished work = to accomplish

Page: 495,496, 575, 588

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 496, 413, 474, 484, 560, 570, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiān (Pinyin)

Meaning: first

Explanation: image of a person with hair = the first born = first

Page: 496, 485

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: hòu (Pinyin)

Meaning: behind/after
131

Explanation: human being upside down +mouth = the back opening of a human body = hind =
behind/after

Page: 496, 485, 767

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (seal)

Pronunciation: hé (Pinyin); ho2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: which

Explanation: person + person carrying two baskets = person +to carry something heavy = person
+ to be able to = which one is able to = which

Page: 496, 485, 518, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 遠 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yuǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: far

Explanation: images of feet all around the sun = walking all day = far

Page: 496, 485, 518

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon = sunrise

Page: 496, 486, 574, 635, 695, 697, 699, 743


132

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: kǒu (Pinyin)

Meaning: mouth

Explanation: image of a mouth = mouth

Page: 496, 486

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fēi (Pinyin); féi (Pound’s)

Meaning: not

Explanation: image of two identical human beings/ribs = together = not the only one = not

Page: 496, 487, 586

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: qí (Pinyin); k’I (Pound’s)

Meaning: that, his, its, her, their

Explanation: image of a braided container = things that contain other things = that, his, its, her,
their

Page: 496, 487, 574

Total Citation Time(s): 3


133

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: guǐ (Pinyin)

Meaning: ghost /the deceased one

Explanation: image of a person on +knees with frizzy hair on a huge head = ghost

Page: 496, 487, 768

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: ěr (Pinyin)

Meaning: and

Explanation: image of beard = something connected to face = connected = and

Page: 496, 487

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and s implified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jì (Pinyin)

Meaning: to worship

Explanation: (meat +table) +hand = to put meat on the table = to offer food with respect = to
worship

Page: 496, 487

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and s implified) (oracle)


134

Pronunciation: zhī (Pinyin); tcheu (Pound’s)

Meaning: to go/ of

Explanation: image of a foot on earth = to go = of (connecting)

Page: 496, 487, 577

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: 諂 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: chǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: to flatter

Explanation: (main idea+ pattern +mouth) + (person + fire pit/trap) = to trap someone with
words = to flatter

Page: 496, 487, 768

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yě (Pinyin)

Meaning: also

Explanation: image of a snake = long and meandering things = somewhat connected = also

Page: 496, 487,

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fú (Pinyin)

Meaning: letter case/to fit


135

Explanation: two bamboo leaves + (human +hand) = bamboo + to give someone = to give
someone a bamboo case = a letter case/ to fit

Page: 496, 488

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: 節(traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jié (Pinyin)

Meaning: to divide /to cut down

Explanation: two bamboo leaves + (bamboo stem+ horizontal plane of a bamboo node) =
bamboo knot = to divide/to cut down

Page: 496, 488

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simpli fied) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhì (Pinyin); chih4 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wish/aspiration

Explanation: foot +heart = where heart stops = wish/aspiration

Page: 496, 487, 592

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: chéng (Pinyin); ch’êng, Tch’eng, TCH’ENG (Pound’s)

Meaning: to accomplish

Explanation: image of a spear resting on a shelf = finished work = to accomplish

Page: 496, 495, 575, 588


136

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: dào (Pinyin)

Meaning: way

Explanation: three feet surrounding a face = main road = way

Page: 502

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 辭 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: cí (Pinyin)

Meaning: speech

Explanation: fingers on the top trying to separate entangled things + (mouth +hand) = mess + to
control with word = to control mess with words = to litigate = speech

Page: 506

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 達 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: dá (Pinyin)

Meaning: to arrive

Explanation: two feet + (earth +sheep+ foot) = to arrive a place where sheep can be herded = to
arrive

Page: 506

Total Citation Time(s): 1


137

Character: (traditional and simpl ified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: huáng 5 (Pinyin)

Meaning: yellow

Explanation: possibly image of color of a farm field = the color of earth = yellow (as the earth
color of the Middle Kingdom are mostly yellow)

Page: 507

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 鳥(traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: niǎo (Pinyin)

Meaning: bird

Explanation: image of a bird = bird

Page: 507

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 507, 261, 563, 573,591, 596,645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (seal)


138

Pronunciation: hé (Pinyin); ho2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: which

Explanation: person + person carrying two baskets = person +to carry something heavy = person
+ to be able to = which one is able to = which

Page: 518, 485, 496, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 遠 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yuǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: far

Explanation: images of feet all around the sun =walking all day = far

Page: 518, 485, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: quǎn (Pinyin); ch’üan3 (Pound’s)

Meaning: dog

Explanation: image of a dog

Page: 519

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: wù (Pinyin)

Meaning: do not
139

Explanation: blood drops +knife = to cut = to hurt = do not (do something)

Page: 552

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhù (Pinyin)

Meaning: help

Explanation: phallus+ plow = strength +to work = to work on strength =to help

Page: 552

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 長 (traditional) (simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

(seal)

Pronunciation: zhǎng (Pinyin)

Meaning: to grow/long

Explanation: image of a child with long hair = to grow = long

Page: 552,568

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming2, ming, mîng, Ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright

Explanation: moon + sun= bright


140

Page: 559, 572, 577, 713, 739

Total Citation Time(s): 6 Character: (traditional and simpl ified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 560, 413, 474, 484, 496, 570, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain = to invoke spirits for rain = spirit

Page: 563, 572, 575, 580, 695, 758, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yī (Pinyin); I (Pound’s)

Meaning: he/she (This meaning is very modern. In The Cantos, this character only means an
official.)

Explanation: person +hand holding a stick = to hold a scepter = to rule = rule= respectful person
= he/she

Page: 563

Total Citation Time(s): 1


141

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yǐn (Pinyin); Yin (Pound’s)

Meaning: to rule

Explanation: image of a hand holding a scepter = to rule/ruler

Page: 563

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 563, 261, 507, 573,591, 596, 645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character:賢 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (bronze)

Pronunciation: xián (Pinyin); hsien2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: virtuous person/virtuous

Explanation: underling+ hand+ shell = a diligent and productive worker = a virtuous


person=virtuous

Page: 563

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)


142

Pronunciation: rén (Pinyin); jen, jên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: compassion

Explanation: a human being + two = compassion between people = compassion

Page: 564, 290, 649, 696, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

(seal)

Pronunciation: zhì (Pinyin); chih4, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: intelligence

Explanation: = arrow +mouth + dagger = right on with words = intelligence

= arrow +mouth + dagger +sun= right on with illuminating words = intelligence

Page: 564, 595

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified ) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); chung1-4 (Pound’s)

Meaning: the bottom of one's heart/honest/sincere

Explanation: cover + middle +heart = the bottom of one's heart = honest/sincere

Page: 564

Total Citation Time(s): 1


143

Character: (traditional a nd simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: hào ho (Pinyin)

Meaning: good

Explanation: woman +baby = good

Page: 564

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) or


(seal)

Pronunciation: jiǎ (Pinyin)

Meaning: the first of the Ten Celestial Numbers

Explanation: cross/cross within closed borders → the first of the Ten Celestial Numbers

Page: 564

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: duān (Pinyin); TUAN1, touan, tuan, Tuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: upright

Explanation: human standing on a floor+ (hair +beard) = standing+ straight face= straight
=upright

Page: 565, 581, 621, 792

Total Citation Time(s): 4


144

Character: 時 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: shí (Pinyin); shih2, cheu, chên (Pound’s)

Meaning: time

Explanation: = foot on floor+ sun = sun stop = time

=sun + (foot on floor + hand) = sun + (stop + measure) = measuring of sun stops =time

Page: 565, 570, 577

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: chén (Pinyin); ch’ên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sincere/to rely on

Explanation: heart + a person with a load on his shoulders = heart + down = deep hearted =
sincere

Page: 565

Total Citation Time(s): 2, one as

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: dé (Pinyin); tê, Tê (Pound’s)

Meaning: virtue/morality

Explanation: (two persons) + (ten + four+ one + heart) = fourteen people interact with one heart
= what holds people together = virtue/morality
145

Page: 566, 568, 594

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: sì (Pinyin); szu’ (Pound’s)

Meaning: worship

Explanation: drape + human on knees = sign from heaven + worshipper = worship/to worship

Page: 566

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yǐ (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: by means of/because of

Explanation: image of a hook = to search for with a hook = by means of/because of

Page: 567, 290, 656, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhēn (Pinyin); chên, tchen, chen (Pound’s)

Meaning: to divine/chastity

Explanation: image of a turtle shell = to divine (Chinese burned turtle shell to tell fortune from
cracks) = good omen = chastity

Page: 567,570, 582, 621, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 5


146

Character: 陳 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: chén (Pinyin); ch’ên (Pound’s)

Meaning: arrange

Explanation: flat land with stones + wheel +hand = place + carriage +hand = to put carriages in
places = to arrange (an army) = to arrange

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: jiè (Pinyin); chiai (Pound’s)

Meaning: caution

Explanation: two hands+ spear= to caution

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 獲 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: huò (Pinyin)

Meaning: gain

Explanation: = = bird+ hand = to get a bird = to gain

獲=beast +(grass+ bird +hand) = to hunt for birds and beast in a prairie = to gain

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1


147

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: zì (Pinyin)

Meaning: self

Explanation: image of a nose = the organ of breath = selfhood = self

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 盡(traditional and simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jìn (Pinyin)

Meaning: finish

Explanation: hand +empty/nearly empty container = things inside the container are gone = finish

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: pǐ (Pinyin)

Meaning: pair/match

Explanation: image of two horses tied together = pair/match

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: f/f (Pinyin)


148

Meaning: man/husband

Explanation: image of a tall man = man/husband = the beginning of a sentence

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 婦 (traditional) (simplified) or (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: f (Pinyin)

Meaning: married woman

Explanation: (brush+ tree) +woman = broom +woman =housewife

Page: 567

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 盤(traditional) (simplified) or (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: pán (Pinyin); P’an (Pound’s)

Meaning: plate

Explanation: = a container = hand with water dripping down+ basin = plate

= boat+ two hands +basin = boat-shaped container held by hands = plate

Page: 568

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: gè (Pinyin)
149

Meaning: each

Explanation: hand+ mouth= to count mouths = to count each person = each

Page: 568

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 長 (traditional) (simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

(seal)

Pronunciation: zhǎng (Pinyin)

Meaning: to grow/long

Explanation: image of a child with long hair = to grow = long

Page: 568, 552

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yú (Pinyin)

Meaning: in/among/at
Explanation: image of being inside= in/among/at

Page: 568

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: jué (Pinyin)

Meaning: faint/same as/he, his, she, her


150

Explanation: = tubers + spade =to dig up root fruits = dark = faint = same as (the on-
surface/obvious one) = he/ his/she/her

= base + (tubers + spade) =to dig up root fruits from below= dark = faint =same as (the
on-surface/obvious one) =he/his/she/her

Page: 568

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin)

Meaning: to live/residence

Explanation: sitting person + (cross + mouth) = not moving + (to set up+ mouth) = moving +
established = to live/residence

Page: 568

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: dé (Pinyin); tê, Tê (Pound’s)

Meaning: virtue/morality

Explanation: (two persons) + (ten + four+ one + heart) = fourteen people interact with one heart
= what holds people together = virtue/morality

Page: 568, 566, 594

Total Citation Time(s): 3


151

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: gāo (Pinyin); liú (Pound’s)

Meaning: high

Explanation: image of a layered building = high

Page: 569

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: zōng (Pinyin); TSOUNG (Pound’s)

Meaning: ancestor

Explanation: = = phallus = male ancestor

= house + drape = house +signs from heaven= house +divinity = divinity under a house
= deceased ancestor

Page: 569

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 慮 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: lǜ (Pinyin); liú (Pound’s)

Meaning: consider/worry

Explanation: =two blocks +heart = burdened heart = to worry/consider


152

= tiger+ field + heart = danger + (cross work +heart) = danger + to think through = to
consider/worry

Page: 569

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 時 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: shí (Pinyin); shih2, cheu, chên (Pound’s)

Meaning: time

Explanation: =foot on floor+ sun = sun stop = time

=sun + (foot on floor + hand) = sun + (stop + measure) = measuring of sun stops =time

Page: 570, 565, 577

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplifie d) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 570, 413, 474, 484, 496, 560, 574, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)


153

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 570, 449, 572, 632, 650, 713

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: wǎng (Pinyin); wang (Pound’s)

Meaning: to libel/to slander/to deceive/not straight/crooked/not

Explanation: = = net = to trap = to libel/to slander/to deceive/not straight/crooked/not

Page: 571

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhēn (Pinyin); chên, tchen, chen (Pound’s)

Meaning: to divine/chastity

Explanation: image of a turtle shell = to divine (Chinese burned turtle shell to tell fortune from
cracks) = good omen = chastity

Page: 570, 567, 582, 621, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: pú (Pinyin); pou (Pound’s)

Meaning: servant/serve
154

Explanation: person + stick = worker = servant/serve

Page: 571

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain = to invoke spirits for rain = spirit

Page: 563, 572, 575, 580, 695, 758, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: 聰(traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: cōng (Pinyin); Ts’oung (Pound’s)

Meaning: smart

Explanation: ear + (head with a soft spot on the top +heart) = smart

Page: 572

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: dn (Pinyin); tàn (Pound’s)

Meaning: granary filled with grain/to trust/sincerely

Explanation: image of grain containers piled up = harvest = granary filled with grain/to
trust/sincerely
155

Page: 572

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming2, ming, mîng, Ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright

Explanation: moon + sun = bright

Page: 572, 559, 577, 713, 739

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 572, 449, 570, 632, 650, 713

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: wǔ (Pinyin); Wu, OU (Pound’s)

Meaning: martial

Explanation: spear + foot = to stop/start war = martial

Page: 572, 576,653

Total Citation Time(s): 3


156

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 573, 261, 507, 563, 591, 596,645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: 齊 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze) or

(seal)

Pronunciation: qí (Pinyin); t’sì (Pound’s)

Meaning: equal

Explanation: image of three same shaped things = equal

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: lín (Pinyin); lin (Pound’s)

Meaning: woods/forest

Explanation: tree + tree = wood/forest

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1


157

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: jí (Pinyin)

Meaning: extreme/to reach

Explanation: tree + hand with a stick = to reach = to reach the highest = the highest = extreme

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and sim plified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: xuě (Pinyin)

Meaning: blood

Explanation: image of a container with a drop dripping into it = blood

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: piān (Pinyin)

Meaning: one-sided/inclined/slanted

Explanation: human being + (panel of a door + book) = human being + flat = inclined/slanted

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: dng/tng (Pinyin); t’oung (Pound’s)


158

Meaning: to threaten/pain

Explanation: heart + (cave + one + mouth) = heart + empty echo/together = heart beating loudly
= to threaten/pain

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) seal

Pronunciation: gun (Pinyin); kouan (Pound’s)

Meaning: pain/to care for others’ pain

Explanation: cold base + eye + small = pain/to care for others’ pain

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: ni (Pinyin); nài (Pound’s)

Meaning: be/however

Explanation: image of long breath = concession = be/however

Page: 573

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: shēn (Pinyin); chenn (Pound’s)

Meaning: body

Explanation: profile of a person with a big belly= body


159

Page: 574, 290

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: l (Pinyin); min (Pound’s)

Meaning: atrocity

Explanation: one panel of a door + dog = dog barking inside = atrocity

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 監 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jin/jin (Pinyin); kién (Pound’s)

Meaning: supervise/prison

Explanation: container + wide eyed person = someone watching a boiling soup =


supervise/prison

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: t (Pinyin); (Pound’s)

Meaning: earth/land

Explanation: flat floor+ stone = stone piled land = marked place = land/earth

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1


160

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line=middle

Page: 574, 413, 474, 484, 496, 560, 570, 659, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise

Page: 574, 486, 496, 635, 695, 697, 699, 743

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yu (Pinyin); iue (Pound’s)

Meaning: speak

Explanation: something + mouth = something that comes out of a mouth = speak

Page: 574, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: pi (Pinyin); p’ei (Pound’s)


161

Meaning: pair/match/mate

Explanation: wine urn + person = to drink wine = union in marriage = pair/match/mate

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: hung (Pinyin); houâng (Pound’s)

Meaning: emperor/royal

Explanation: rays + sun + earth = grand sun = emperor/royal

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: qí (Pinyin); k’I (Pound’s)

Meaning: that, his, its, her, their

Explanation: image of a braided container = things that contain other things = that, his, its, her,
their

Page: 574, 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: png (Pinyin); p’eng (Pound’s)

Meaning: friends
162

Explanation: = image of bird wings = flying together = friends

= two wings + bird = bird wings = flying together = friends

Page: 574

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: hu (Pinyin); tcho (Pound’s)

Meaning: fire

Explanation: image of flames = fire

Page: 575

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); ching, ching (Pound’s)

Meaning: respect

Explanation: mouth + person with feather head + (stick +hand) = to respect with words,
costumes, and actions = respect

Page: 575, 601, 711, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: g (Pinyin)
163

Meaning: spear

Explanation: image of a spear = spear

Page: 575

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and si mplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: chéng (Pinyin); ch’êng, Tch’eng, TCH’ENG (Pound’s)

Meaning: to accomplish

Explanation: image of a spear resting on a shelf = finished work= to accomplish

Page: 575, 495,496, 588

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 湯(traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: tng (Pinyin); T’ang (Pound’s)

Meaning: hot water/soup

Explanation: river + (sun +pig) = liquid + (sun +pig) = sweat from a hot pig = sweat= hot
water/soup

Page: 575

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: din (Pinyin); tien (Pound’s)

Meaning: field/heavy
164

Explanation: = image of a field = field/heavy

= = field + hunched person = field/heavy

Page: 575

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain= to invoke spirits for rain=spirit

Page: 575, 563, 572, 580, 695, 758, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) bronze

Pronunciation: p (Pinyin); p’i (Pound’s)

Meaning: beginning

Explanation: a flower bud = the beginning of something (cf. = the opposite of something )

Page: 576

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) same as (bronze)

4
Pronunciation: r(Pinyin); erh (Pound’s)
165

Meaning: two

Explanation: image of two lines = two

Page: 576

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y(Pinyin)

Meaning: town/country/state

Explanation: border + bended person = citizen inside the borders = town/country/state

Page: 576

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) derived from= (oracle)

Pronunciation: ti (Pinyin); T’AI, T’ai, t ’ai (Pound’s)

Meaning: too much

Explanation: image of a person with his arms wide open and an extra dot between his legs = too
much

Page: 576, 653, 709

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: w (Pinyin); MEOU (Pound’s)

Meaning: the fifth of the Ten Celestial Numbers

Explanation: image of a spear → the fifth of the Ten Celestial Numbers


166

Page: 576

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: wǔ (Pinyin); Wu, OU (Pound’s)

Meaning: martial

Explanation: spear + foot = to stop/start war = martial

Page: 576, 572, 653

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) or

(seal)

Pronunciation: dng(Pinyin); TING (Pound’s)

Meaning: nail/the fourth of the Ten Celestial Numbers

Explanation: image of a nail = nail →the fourth of the Ten Celestial Numbers

Page: 576

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: wi (Pinyin); wei (Pound’s)

Meaning: think/only

Explanation: heart + bird = to think how to catch a bird = think/focus = think/only

Page: 576
167

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 577, 252, 333, 352, 382, 387, 400, 702, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhī (Pinyin); tcheu (Pound’s)

Meaning: to go/of

Explanation: image of a foot on earth = to go = of (connecting)

Page: 577, 487, 679

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (seal )

Pronunciation: gong/gng (Pinyin); koung (Pound’s)

Meaning: to worship/to provide

Explanation: = sun + (two hands up) = to worship sun = to worship (with sacrifice) =to
worship/to provide
168

=human being + sun + (two hands up) = to worship sun = to worship (with sacrifice) =to
worship/to provide

Page: 577

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: x(Pinyin); siu, hsü (Pound’s)

Meaning: to assist

Explanation: meat + (upward line + foot) = muscle to the leg = to assist

Page: 577

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: jio/jio (Pinyin); kiaó, chi ao1-4 (Pound’s)

Meaning: to teach/doctrine

Explanation: (four divination sticks +baby) + (stick +hand) = children learning + teacher guiding
= to teach/doctrine

Page: 577, 579, 581

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: 時 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: shí (Pinyin); shih2, cheu, chên (Pound’s)


169

Meaning: time

Explanation: =foot on floor+ sun = sun stop = time

=sun + (foot on floor + hand) = sun + (stop + measure) = measuring of sun stops =time

Page: 577, 565, 570

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: w (Pinyin); ngò (Pound’s)

Meaning: I, me, and myself

Explanation: image of flagged spear =marked defending weapon = individual dangerous when
offended = I, me, and myself

Page: 577

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming2, ming, mîng, Ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright

Explanation: moon + sun= bright

Page: 577, 559, 572, 713, 739

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (tradi tional and simplified) (seal)


170

4
Pronunciation: jn (Pinyin); tsiun chün (Pound’s)

Meaning: good looking/smart

Explanation: human being + (bird +hand) = person who dressed like a bird = good looking/smart

Page: 577

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: mng (Pinyin); ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: mandate/order/fate/life

Explanation: (three branches) + person kneeling down = gathering + to obey =


mandate/order/=mandate of life = fate/life

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:斷 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: dun (Pinyin); touán (Pound’s)

Meaning: to cut

Explanation: shorten silk yarns + axe = to cut

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 備(traditional)(simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

4
Pronunciation: bi (Pinyin); pei (Pound’s)

Meaning: to prepare
171

Explanation: = =image of crops inside a barrel = to prepare (for famine)

=human being + crops inside a barrel = to prepare (for famine)

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)


2
Pronunciation: rng (Pinyin); yung (Pound’s)

Meaning: face/to contain/to tolerate

Explanation: image of a face with eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth = face = something that contains
many items = to contain/to tolerate

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: shng (Pinyin); chong (Pound’s)

Meaning: to grow/to give birth to

Explanation: image of plant spouting = to grow/to give birth to

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: hu (Pinyin); heóu (Pound’s)


172

Meaning: thick

Explanation: base + things with many layers = thick

Page: 578

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

1-4
Pronunciation: jio/jio (Pinyin); kiaó, chiao (Pound’s)

Meaning: to teach/doctrine

Explanation: (four divination sticks +baby) + (stick +hand) = children learning + teacher guiding
= to teach/doctrine

Page: 579, 577, 581

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bng (Pinyin)

Meaning: to hold

Explanation: crop + hand = gather = hold

Page: 579

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: mo/m (Pinyin)

Meaning: to be exposed to/to risk

Explanation: sun + eye = eyes to be exposed to sun = to be exposed to/to risk


173

Page: 579

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: x (Pinyin); (Pound’s)

Meaning: sympathy

Explanation: heart + container with a blood dripping into it = heart + blood = sympathy

Page: 580

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:詳 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: xing (Pinyin); hsiang (Pound’s)

Meaning: detail/comprehensive

Explanation: speech + sheep = speech + beauty = beautiful talk =detailed talk


=detail/comprehensive

Page: 580

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain= to invoke spirits for rain=spirit

Page: 580, 563, 572, 575, 695, 758, 760


174

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: din (Pinyin)

Meaning: ritual/canon

Explanation: two hands below + organized items on the top = to worship= ritual/canon

Page: 580

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:簡 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: jin (Pinyin)

Meaning: book/simple

Explanation: = bamboo (bronze)+ [gate (oracle)+ sun (oracle)] =


bamboo + between = bamboo sticks tied together = book/simple writing material (compared to
silk and bronze) = book/simple

Page: 581

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)


1-4
Pronunciation: jio/jio (Pinyin); kiaó, chiao (Pound’s)

Meaning: to teach/doctrine

Explanation: (four divination sticks +baby) + (stick +hand) = children learning + teacher guiding
= to teach/doctrine

Page: 581, 577, 579


175

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: duān (Pinyin); TUAN1, touan, tuan, Tuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: upright

Explanation: human standing on a floor+ (hair +beard) = standing+ straight face= straight
=upright

Page: 581, 565, 621, 792

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character:(traditional ) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: t (Pinyin); t’i (Pound’s)

Meaning: body/style

Explanation: bone + (wine + tall cup) = bone + harvest = big bone = body/style

Page: 581

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: yoyo (Pinyin); iao (Pound’s)

Meaning: must/important

Explanation: two hands on both sides + a girl with her spine = waist = something pivotal =
must/important

Page: 581

Total Citation Time(s): 1


176

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin); kiue (Pound’s)

Meaning: finished

Explanation: pot + person with eyes looking at the other side = eating finished =finished/already

Page: 581

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: xn (Pinyin); hsin (Pound’s)

Meaning: heart

Explanation: image of a heart = heart

Page: 581, 593

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: m (Pinyin); MOU (Pound’s)

Meaning: serene/solemn

Explanation: tree + (sun +shadow) =shade =serene/solemn

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)


177

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 582, 587, 588, 611, 660, 661, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character:篤 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: d (Pinyin); tou (Pound’s)

Meaning: slow/insistent

Explanation: bamboo + horse = horse walking slowly in bamboo woods = slow/insistent

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); tchoung (Pound’s)

Meaning: loyal

Explanation: middle + heart = balanced heart = loyal

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhēn (Pinyin); chên, tchen, chen (Pound’s)


178

Meaning: to divine/chastity

Explanation: image of a turtle shell = to divine (Chinese burned turtle shell to tell fortune from
cracks) = good omen =chastity

Page: 582, 567,570, 621, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: chng (Pinyin);tch’âng (Pound’s)

Meaning: constant

Explanation: (ray + some place high + mouth) + drape = high fashion people talk about + status
indicator = high status = constant

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:憲 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: xin (Pinyin)

Meaning: law

Explanation: upside cage + eye = watch out for the limits = law

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: l (Pinyin)

Meaning: alternate/a family name


179

Explanation: image of two spinal bones = alternate → a family name

Page: 582

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (seal)


4
Pronunciation: mo (Pinyin); mao (Pound’s)

Meaning: look

Explanation: = image of a person with a large face= face =look

= bird/beast +person with an large face = attractive face = face =look

Page: 583

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin)

Meaning: also

Explanation: image of a person’s armpits = something hidden = also

Page: 583

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: shng (Pinyin)

Meaning: fashion/esteem
180

Explanation: ray + some place high + mouth = high fashion people talk about = fashion/esteem

Page: 583

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: one

Explanation: image of a line = one

Page: 583, 620, 659, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: rn (Pinyin); jin, jên? (Pound’s)

Meaning: human being

Explanation: image of a human being = human being

Page: 583, 620, 659, 664, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good = justice
/righteousness

Page: 583, 587,615, 647, 694, 709,710


181

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: xn(Pinyin)

Explanation: human being + (main idea+ pattern +mouth) =human being + speech=message/trust

Page: 584, 171

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: fēi (Pinyin); féi (Pound’s)

Meaning: not

Explanation: image of two identical human beings/ribs = together = not the only one = not

Page: 586, 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character:寶 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bo (Pinyin); pào, pao 3, paothree (Pound’s)

Meaning: treasure

Explanation: =roof +jade +shell = house + jewelry + money= treasure

= roof +jade +shell + urn= house + jewelry +money + dinnerware= treasure

Page: 586, 656, 696, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 4


182

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhn (Pinyin); CHÊN, CHEN (Pound’s)

Meaning: to shake

Explanation: rain + shell animal in the field = thunderstorm = to shake

Page: 586, 633, 676

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yu (Pinyin); Iou (Pound’s)

Meaning: dark

Explanation: silks yarns inside hills = hard to see = dark

Page: 587

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simpli fied) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 587, 582, 588, 611, 660, 661, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 10


183

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 587, 583, 615, 647, 694, 709,710

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: h (Pinyin); Houo (Pound’s)

Meaning: peace

Explanation: crop + mouth = to have food to eat = at peace = peace

Page: 587

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: b/bi/b (Pinyin); Pe (Pound’s)

Meaning: father’s elder brother/duke

Explanation: = = image of a sun = someone higher = father’s elder brother/duke

= person + sun = someone higher = father’s elder brother/duke

Page: 587,703
184

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: qn (Pinyin); K’în (Pound’s)

Meaning: fowl

Explanation: container upside down + frightened animal = to catch a fowl = fowl

Page: 587

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: chéng (Pinyin); ch’êng, Tch’eng, TCH’ENG (Pound’s)

Meaning: to accomplish

Explanation: image of a spear resting on a shelf = finished work= to accomplish

Page: 588, 495,496, 575

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 588, 582, 587, 611, 660, 661, 708


185

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 591, 261, 507, 563, 573, 596, 645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 591, 265, 649, 662, 676, 738, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 591, 265, 278, 649, 662,695, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)


186

Pronunciation: zhì (Pinyin); chih4 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wish/aspiration

Explanation: foot +heart = where heart stops = wish/aspiration

Page: 592, 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: sn (Pinyin); San (Pound’s)

Meaning: three

Explanation: image of three lines = three

Page: 592, 625

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: g (Pinyin); Ku (Pound’s)

Meaning: orphan/lonely

Explanation: baby + melon = a suspended baby = orphan/lonely

Page: 592, 625

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: xn (Pinyin); hsin (Pound’s)

Meaning: heart

Explanation: image of a heart = heart


187

Page: 593, 581

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplifi ed) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: dé (Pinyin); tê, Tê (Pound’s)

Meaning: virtue/morality

Explanation: (two persons) + (ten + four+ one + heart) = fourteen people interact with one heart
= what holds people together = virtue/morality

Page: 594, 566, 568

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: shng (Pinyin)

Meaning: up/above

Explanation: image of one thing above the other = up/above

Page: 595

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)


4
Pronunciation: l (Pinyin); li (Pound’s)

Meaning: sharp/benefit

Explanation: crop with grains + knife = to harvest with sharp knifes = sharp/benefit

Page: 595, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 2


188

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle) (bronze)

(seal)

Pronunciation: zhì (Pinyin); chih4, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: intelligence

Explanation: =arrow +mouth + dagger= right on with words = intelligence

= arrow +mouth + dagger +sun= right on with illuminating words = intelligence

Page: 595, 564

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 596, 261, 507, 563, 573,591, 645, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simp lified) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); ching, ching (Pound’s)

Meaning: respect

Explanation: mouth + person with feather head + (stick +hand) = to respect with words,
costumes, and actions = respect
189

Page: 601, 575, 711, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: sh (Pinyin); shih, in the first tone (Pound’s)

Meaning: corpse

Explanation: image of a dead person = corpse

Page: 602

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:書 (traditional) and simplified) or (bronze) or (seal)

Pronunciation: sh (Pinyin)

Meaning: book

Explanation: =growth + mouth = something grown out of conversation = wisdom=book

= =hand + wisdom = to write wisdom down = book

Page: 610

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:經 (traditional) (simplified) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); king (Pound’s)

Meaning: significant book


190

Explanation: = neck/path = significant book

silk+ neck/path = major book written in silk= significant book

Page: 610, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 611, 582, 587, 588, 660, 661, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

4-5
Pronunciation: b (Pinyin); pi (Pound’s)

Meaning: must/have to

Explanation: image of something penetrating a heart = determination = must/have to

Page: 612, 615

Total Citation Time(s): 2


191

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 615, 583, 587, 647, 694, 709,710

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) or (seal)

Pronunciation: hé (Pinyin); ho2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: which

Explanation: person + person carrying two baskets = person +to carry something heavy = person
+ to be able to = which one is able to=which one to be=which

Page: 615, 485, 496, 518,

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and si mplified) (bronze) (seal)

4-5
Pronunciation: b (Pinyin); pi (Pound’s)

Meaning: must/have to

Explanation: image of something penetrating a heart = determination = must/have to

Page: 615, 612

Total Citation Time(s): 2


192

Character: (traditional and simpli fied) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yu (Pinyin); iue (Pound’s)

Meaning: speak

Explanation: something + mouth = something that comes out of a mouth = speak

Page: 615, 574

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: l (Pinyin); li (Pound’s)

Meaning: sharp/benefit

Explanation: crop with grains + knife = to harvest with sharp knifes = sharp/benefit

Page: 615, 595

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); (Pound’s)

Meaning: change

Explanation: pattern + eye= image of a color-changing lizard = change

Page: 618

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: mng (Pinyin); Mang (Pound’s)


193

Meaning: the third son

Explanation: baby + basin = the baby who takes a bath in a basin = small baby = the third son

Page: 619, 712

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: one

Explanation: image of a line = one

Page: 620, 583, 659, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: rn (Pinyin); jin, jên? (Pound’s)

Meaning: human being

Explanation: image of a human being = human being

Page: 620, 583, 659, 664, 708

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: duān (Pinyin); TUAN1, touan, tuan, Tuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: upright

Explanation: human standing on a floor+ (hair +beard) = standing+ straight face= straight
=upright

Page: 621, 565, 581, 792


194

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhēn (Pinyin); chên, tchen, chen (Pound’s)

Meaning: to divine/chastity

Explanation: image of a turtle shell = to divine (Chinese burned turtle shell to tell fortune from
cracks) = good omen =chastity

Page: 621, 567,570, 582, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character:機 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin)

Meaning: machine/opportunity/pivot

Explanation: tree + (two silk yarns + spear) = machine to weave silk = machine = important =
pivot/opportunity

Page: 623, 766

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: sn (Pinyin); San (Pound’s)

Meaning: three

Explanation: image of three lines = three

Page: 625, 592

Total Citation Time(s): 2


195

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: g (Pinyin); Ku (Pound’s)

Meaning: orphan/lonely

Explanation: baby + melon = a suspended baby = orphan/lonely

Page: 625, 592

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 632, 449, 570, 572, 650, 713

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhn (Pinyin); CHÊN, CHEN (Pound’s)

Meaning: to shake

Explanation: rain + shell animal in the field = thunderstorm = to shake

Page: 633, 586, 676

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)


196

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise

Page: 635, 486, 496, 574, 695, 697, 699, 743

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 645, 261, 507, 563, 573, 591, 596, 800, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 647, 583, 587,615, 694, 709,710

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: l (Pinyin); li (Pound’s)

Meaning: strength

Explanation: image of a plow = tools that requires and enhances strength = strength
197

Page: 648

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

2
Pronunciation: hang/hang/hng/xng (Pinyin); hsing (Pound’s)

Meaning: row/walk/ready

Explanation: image of a crossroad = open paths for walking = row/walk/ready

Page: 649

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: jn (Pinyin); chin 4(Pound’s)

Meaning: near

Explanation: walk + axe = shortcut = near

Page: 649, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)


1
Pronunciation: h (Pinyin); hu (Pound’s)

Meaning: the end of a lingering sentence or question/at/in/from/than

Explanation: image of unfinished breath = still = the end of a lingering sentence or


question/at/in/from/than

Page: 649, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 2


198

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: rén (Pinyin); jen, jên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: compassion

Explanation: a human being + two = compassion between people = compassion

Page: 649, 290, 564, 664, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 649, 265, 591, 662, 676, 738, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 649, 265, 278, 591, 662, 695, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character:見 (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

4
Pronunciation: jin/xin (Pinyin); chien (Pound’s)
199

Meaning: to see

Explanation: eye + person = to see

Page: 649

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 650, 449, 570, 572, 632, 713

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) derived from= (oracle)

Pronunciation: ti (Pinyin); T’AI, T’ai, t ’ai (Pound’s)

Meaning: too much

Explanation: image of a person with his arms wide open and an extra dot between his legs = too
much

Page: 653, 576, 709

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: wǔ (Pinyin); Wu, OU (Pound’s)

Meaning: martial

Explanation: spear + foot = to stop/start war = martial


200

Page: 653, 572, 576

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: z (Pinyin); Tzu (Pound’s)

Meaning: baby/ancient title for respectful men

Explanation: image of a baby (large head out of proportion) = baby

Page: 653, 772

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: ling (Pinyin); leang (Pound’s)

Meaning: ridge/bridge

Explanation: (water+ sharp knife) + tree = trimmed lumber soaked in water = sturdy lumber =
ridge/bridge

Page: 656

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: hu (Pinyin); Hwuy (Pound’s)

Meaning: good/benefit/benevolent

Explanation: = image of crops growing well in a field = good/benefit/benevolent


201

= crops growing well in a field + heart = good/benefit/benevolent

Page: 656

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yǐ (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: by means of/because of

Explanation: image of a hook = to search for with a hook = by means of/because of

Page: 656, 290, 567, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: 財 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: cái (Pinyin); ts’ai3 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wealth

Explanation: shell+ lumber = money +commodity = wealth

Page: 656, 290, 659

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 發 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: fā (Pinyin); fa, fa1-5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: to develop

Explanation: two feet+ a bow +two hands = to string a bow = to develop

Page: 656, 290, 659, 675


202

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character:無 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: w (Pinyin); wu (Pound’s)

Meaning: negative/not to have

Explanation: image of a dancer holding two drums/bows = to dance = right in the middle of
performance= negative/not to have

Page: 656,703

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:寶 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bo (Pinyin); pào, pao 3, paothree (Pound’s)

Meaning: treasure

Explanation: = roof +jade +shell = house + jewelry + money = treasure

= roof +jade +shell + urn= house + jewelry +money + dinnerware = treasure

Page: 656, 586, 696, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 發 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: fā (Pinyin); fa, fa1-5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: to develop

Explanation: two feet+ a bow +two hands = to string a bow = to develop


203

Page: 659, 290, 656, 675

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: 財 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: cái (Pinyin); ts’ai3 (Pound’s)

Meaning: wealth

Explanation: shell+ lumber = money +commodity = wealth

Page: 659, 290, 656

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line = middle

Page: 659, 413, 474, 484, 496, 560, 570, 574, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: one

Explanation: image of a line = one

Page: 659, 583, 620, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 4


204

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: rn (Pinyin); jin, jên? (Pound’s)

Meaning: human being

Explanation: image of a human being = human being

Page: 659, 583, 620, 664, 708

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 660, 582, 587, 588, 611, 661, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 660, 706, 712, 764, 777, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 6


205

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 661, 582, 587, 588,611, 660, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 662, 676, 649, 265, 591, 738, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 662, 649, 265, 278, 591, 695, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11


206

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: jn (Pinyin); chin 4(Pound’s)

Meaning: near

Explanation: walk + axe = shortcut = near

Page: 664, 649

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

1
Pronunciation: h (Pinyin); hu (Pound’s)

Meaning: the end of a lingering sentence or question/at/in/from/than

Explanation: image of unfinished breath = still = the end of a lingering sentence or


question/at/in/from/than

Page: 664, 649

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: rén (Pinyin); jen, jên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: compassion

Explanation: a human being + two = compassion between people = compassion

Page: 664,649, 290, 564, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)


207

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: one

Explanation: image of a line = one

Page: 664, 583, 620, 659

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: rn (Pinyin); jin, jên? (Pound’s)

Meaning: human being

Explanation: image of a human being = human being

Page: 664, 583, 620, 659, 708

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: shn (Pinyin)

Meaning: boom

Explanation: three fires + tree = burning bright = boom

Page: 673

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 發 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: fā (Pinyin); fa, fa1-5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: to develop

Explanation: two feet+ a bow +two hands = to string a bow = to develop

Page: 675, 290, 656, 659


208

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhn (Pinyin); CHÊN, CHEN (Pound’s)

Meaning: to shake

Explanation: rain + shell animal in the field = thunderstorm = to shake

Page: 676, 586, 633

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 676, 649, 265, 591, 662, 738, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simpli fied) (seal)

3
Pronunciation: z (Pinyin); tzu (Pound’s)

Meaning: purple

Explanation: (foot +dagger) +silk yarn = ready to cut +silk = almost ripe = close to the utmost
color red = purple

Page: 679

Total Citation Time(s): 1


209

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhī (Pinyin); tcheu (Pound’s)

Meaning: to go/of

Explanation: image of a foot on earth = to go = of (connecting)

Page: 679, 487, 577

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character:奪 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

2-5
Pronunciation: du (Pinyin); to (Pound’s)

Meaning: to rob/to snatch

Explanation: image of catching a bird from all side = to rob/to snatch

Page: 679

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: zh (Pinyin); chu 1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: red

Explanation: image of a tree = color of the heart of a tree = red

Page: 679

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)


210

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 694, 583, 587,615, 647, 709,710

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simp lified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 695, 662, 649, 265, 278, 591, 704, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character:親 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

1
Pronunciation: qn (Pinyin); ch’in (Pound’s)

Meaning: intimate/relative

Explanation: tree with fruits + see = tasty/harsh + see = bitter/sweet +see = emotionally close =
intimate/relative

Page: 695, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise
211

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise

Page: 695, 486, 496, 574, 635, 697, 699, 743

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain= to invoke spirits for rain = spirit

Page: 695, 563, 572, 575, 580, 758, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character:親 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

1
Pronunciation: qn (Pinyin); ch’in (Pound’s)

Meaning: intimate/relative

Explanation: tree with fruits + see = tasty/harsh + see = bitter/sweet +see = emotionally close =
intimate/relative

Page: 696, 695

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: yǐ (Pinyin); i (Pound’s)

Meaning: by means of/because of

Explanation: image of a hook = to search for with a hook = by means of/because of


212

Page: 696, 290, 567, 656

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character:為 (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: wi/wi (Pinyin)

Meaning: to do/(to do something) for (someone, something)

Explanation: hand + large beast = to move a big animal = to do/(to do something) for (someone,
something)

Page: 696

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:寶 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bo (Pinyin); pào, pao 3, paothree (Pound’s)

Meaning: treasure

Explanation: = roof +jade +shell = house + jewelry + money = treasure

= roof +jade +shell + urn = house + jewelry +money + dinnerware = treasure

Page: 696, 586, 656, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: rén (Pinyin); jen, jên2 (Pound’s)

Meaning: compassion
213

Explanation: a human being + two = compassion between people = compassion

Page: 696, 290, 564, 649, 664

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhēn (Pinyin); chên, tchen, chen (Pound’s)

Meaning: to divine/chastity

Explanation: image of a turtle shell = to divine (Chinese burned turtle shell to tell fortune from
cracks) = good omen = chastity

Page: 696, 567,570, 582, 621

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise

Page: 697, 486, 496, 574, 635, 695, 699, 743

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon = sunrise

Page: 699, 486, 496, 574, 635, 695, 697, 743


214

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 702, 252, 333, 352, 382, 387, 400, 577, 711

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 702,252, 333, 382, 400

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming, Min(Pound’s)

Meaning: name

Explanation: half moon +mouth = dark + to shout = identifying sounds in darkness=name

Page: 702, 252, 333, 382, 400

Total Citation Time(s): 5

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)


215

Pronunciation: b/bi/b (Pinyin); Pe (Pound’s)

Meaning: father’s elder brother/duke

Explanation: = = image of a sun = someone higher = father’s elder brother/duke

= person + sun = someone higher = father’s elder brother/duke

Page: 703, 587

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:馬 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: m (Pinyin)

Meaning: horse

Explanation: image of a horse = horse

Page: 703

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:祖 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: z (Pinyin)

Meaning: ancestor

Explanation: = phallus = root of life = ancestor

= drape +phallus = sign + root of life =ancestor


216

= drape from heaven +phallus = heavenly sign + root of life = ancestor

Page: 703

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:無 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: w (Pinyin); wu (Pound’s)

Meaning: negative/not to have

Explanation: image of a dancer holding two drums/bows= to dance = right in the middle of
performance=negative/not to have

Page: 703, 656

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: jun (Pinyin)

Meaning: tired

Explanation: person + crop + two hands + corpse = dead tired after crop-picking = tired

Page: 703

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new


217

Page: 704, 265, 278, 591, 649, 662, 695, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 11 Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: bù (Pinyin)

Meaning: no/not

Explanation: a flower bud = the beginning of something = the opposite of something

Page: 705, 290, 748

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yu (Pinyin); Iu, iu (Pound’s)

Meaning: again

Explanation: image of a hand = to get = to get again = again

Page: 706, 708

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: pio/p/p/p (Pinyin); p’uh, p’uh (Pound’s)

Meaning: to dust/to beat/simple

Explanation: tree + stick = wood stick = to dust/to beat = to go back to the original simple state
=simple

Page: 706

Total Citation Time(s): 1


218

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: sh (Pinyin)

Meaning: to show/sign

Explanation: image of drape = sign for heaven = to show/sign

Page: 706

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 706, 660, 712, 764, 777, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character:業 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); yeh (Pound’s)

Meaning: career/profession

Explanation: image of a tree with a lush top = grown = career/profession

Page: 707, 712, 764, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

2-5
Pronunciation: f/f (Pinyin); foé, fu (Pound’s)
219

Meaning: Buddha

Explanation: person + negative word= person + sound f/f = a person who is


named/translated as Fo/Fu= Buddha

Page: 707, 722, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character:棄 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: q (Pinyin); ch’i (Pound’s)

Meaning: to give up

Explanation: (something falling into a trap) + a trap + two hands = to give up rescuing/to drop
down = to give up

Page: 707

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: sh/sh (Pinyin); she (Pound’s)

Meaning: house/stop/to throw away

Explanation: (three branches) + cross + mouth = gather + cross + to breathe = to settle down =
house/stop/to drop down = to throw away

Page: 707

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:嗎 (traditional) (simplified)

Pronunciation: ma (Pinyin)
220

Meaning: a question word

Explanation: mouth + horse = a speech word with the sound of “horse” = a question word

Page: 708

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xio (Pinyin); hsiao (Pound’s)

Meaning: small

Explanation: image of water drips = small

Page: 708

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: rn (Pinyin); jin, jên? (Pound’s)

Meaning: human being

Explanation: image of a human being = human being

Page: 708, 583, 620, 659, 664

Character: (traditional and simplified) or or (oracle)

Pronunciation: wng/wng (Pinyin); WANG, Wang, wang, (Pound’s)

Meaning: king

Explanation: = image of jade texture= person who wears jade = king


221

= = image of grand or heaven-like person = king

Page: 708, 582, 587, 588,611, 660, 661

Total Citation Time(s): 10

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: yu (Pinyin); Iu, iu (Pound’s)

Meaning: again

Explanation: image of a hand = to get = to get again = again

Page: 708, 706

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 709, 583, 587,615, 647, 694, 710

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: shn (Pinyin); shên (Pound’s)

Meaning: deep

Explanation: cave + tree + river = large underground river = deep


222

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

3-4
Pronunciation: l (Pinyin); li (Pound’s)

Meaning: neighborhood/mile

Explanation: field + earth = farmed area = neighborhood = length of neighborhood = mile

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)


2
Pronunciation: yun (Pinyin); yüan (Pound’s)

Meaning: original

Explanation: image of a spring below = original

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) derived from= (oracle)

Pronunciation: ti (Pinyin); T’AI, T’ai, t ’ai (Pound’s)

Meaning: too much

Explanation: image of a person with his arms wide open and an extra dot between his legs = too
much

Page: 709, 576, 653

Total Citation Time(s): 3


223

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: png (Pinyin); p’ing (Pound’s)

Meaning: flat/equal /balance/to bring peace to

Explanation: image of something flat and balance = flat/equal /balance/to bring peace to

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:風 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (seal)

Pronunciation: fng (Pinyin); feng (Pound’s)

Meaning: wind

Explanation: = image of a big bird, either a phoenix or a peacock = wings that produces
wind = wind

= image of a snake hidden in a protected area =windy outside = wind

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplif ied) (seal)


1
Pronunciation: n (Pinyin); en (Pound’s)

Meaning: benevolence/gratitude

Explanation: (pattern of a mat) + heart = reason + heart = reason of heart =


benevolence/gratitude
224

Page: 709, 730

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional a nd simplified) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: qng (Pinyin); ch’ing (Pound’s)

Meaning: emotion/feeling/love

Explanation: heart + (two earth symbols +moon) =heart + blue/deep color = deep from one’s
heart =emotion/feeling/love

Page: 709

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:義 (traditional ) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); I, i 4, i (four), i (Pound’s)

Meaning: justice/righteousness

Explanation: self + sheep = self + beauty = what makes a person beautiful and good =
justice/righteousness

Page: 710, 583, 587,615, 647, 694, 709

Total Citation Time(s): 7

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: q (Pinyin); ch’i (Pound’s)

Meaning: air/anger

Explanation: image of air/images of puffed air→ anger

Page: 710
225

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: kng (Pinyin); KANG, Kang (Pound’s)

Meaning: wealth/health

Explanation: crop + field + flakes = bran left in the field = harvest = wealth/health

Page: 710

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: x (Pinyin); HI, Hi (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright/prosperous/happy

Explanation: servant + finished + fire = fire is built = bright/prosperous/happy

Page: 710

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)


4
Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); ching, ching (Pound’s)

Meaning: respect

Explanation: mouth + person with feather head + (stick +hand) = to respect with words,
costumes, and actions = respect

Page: 711, 575, 601, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 4


226

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: xio (Pinyin)

Meaning: filial piety

Explanation: land + baby = filial piety

Page: 711

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin); CH’ing, ching, CHING, Ching, tchung, cheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: Correct

Explanation: a block+ foot = to stop at the right place = correct

Page: 711, 252, 333, 352, 382, 387, 400, 577, 702

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character:經 (traditional) (simplified) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); king (Pound’s)

Meaning: significant book

Explanation: = neck/path = significant book

silk+ neck/path = major book written in silk= significant book

Page: 711, 610

Total Citation Time(s): 3


227

Character:門 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: mn (Pinyin); mên (Pound’s)

Meaning: gate

Explanation: image of a gate with two panels = gate

Page: 711

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: tin (Pinyin)

Meaning: field

Explanation: image of cross work of field lines = field

Page: 711

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:錢 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: qin (Pinyin)

Meaning: money

Explanation: image of metal on anvil +two spears = metal + spears = spear-shaped currency =
money

Page: 711

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)


228

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 712, 660, 706, 764, 777, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character:業 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); yeh (Pound’s)

Meaning: career/profession

Explanation: image of a tree with a lush top = grown = career/profession

Page: 712, 707, 764, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: mng (Pinyin); Mang (Pound’s)

Meaning: the third son

Explanation: baby + basin = the baby who takes a bath in a basin = small baby = the third son

Page: 712, 619

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (bronze)

Pronunciation: w (Pinyin);

Meaning: no/do not

Explanation: image of a mother = being protective = no/do not


229

Page: 713

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: h (Pinyin)

Meaning: sudden/neglect/forget

Explanation: sharp knife + heart = shocked = sudden/neglect/forget

Page: 713

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: 顯 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xiǎn (Pinyin); hsien (Pound’s)

Meaning: evident

Explanation: (sun+ two silk yarns) + big head = to inspect silk yarns under the sun = obvious

Page: 713, 449, 570, 572, 632, 650

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming2, ming, mîng, Ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright

Explanation: moon + sun= bright

Page: 713, 559, 572, 577, 739

Total Citation Time(s): 6


230

Character: (traditional and simplified) or (oracle)

Pronunciation: shng (Pinyin); Sheng (Pound’s)

Meaning: scared/saint

Explanation: two hands + something = to lift something up = to make something scared =


scared/saint

Page: 713

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:諭 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); (Pound’s)

Meaning: inform/command

Explanation: speech + (three branches + meat +knife) = announce + party = to inform everyone
= inform/command

Page: 713

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified)


3-5
Pronunciation: f (Pinyin); fa (Pound’s)

Meaning: rules/law

Explanation: water + (earth + leak) = water leaking into earth = always downward= rules/law

Page: 719

Total Citation Time(s): 1


231

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

2-5
Pronunciation: f/f (Pinyin); foé, fu (Pound’s)

Meaning: Buddha

Explanation: person + negative word= person + sound f/f = a person who is


named/translated as Fo/Fu= Buddha

Page: 722, 707, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zho (Pinyin)

Meaning: sign/omen

Explanation: image of fire cracks on turtle shells = divination = sign/omen

Page: 729

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)


1
Pronunciation: n (Pinyin); en (Pound’s)

Meaning: benevolence/gratitude

Explanation: (pattern of a mat) + heart = reason + heart = reason of heart =


benevolence/gratitude

Page: 730, 709

Total Citation Time(s): 2


232

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhōng (Pinyin); Chung, chung1 (Pound’s)

Meaning: middle

Explanation: image of a piece dividing or divided by a long line=middle

Page: 738, 413, 474, 484, 496, 560, 570, 574, 659

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)


2-5
Pronunciation: f/f (Pinyin); foé, fu (Pound’s)

Meaning: Buddha

Explanation: person + negative word= person + sound f/f = a person who is named
translated as Fo/Fu= Buddha

Page: 738, 722, 707

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: bi (Pinyin); pai (Pound’s)

Meaning: white

Explanation: image of sun = white (light)

Page: 738

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)


233

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 738, 265, 591, 649, 662, 676, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: gung (Pinyin); Kuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: light/bright/shine

Explanation: image of a person with a big head = light/bright/shine

Page: 739

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: míng (Pinyin); ming2, ming, mîng, Ming (Pound’s)

Meaning: bright

Explanation: moon + sun= bright

Page: 559, 572, 577, 713, 739

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: dàn (Pinyin); Tán, tan, tan4, tan?, Tan (Pound’s)

Meaning: sunrise

Explanation: sun +horizon =sunrise


234

Page: 743, 486, 496, 574, 635, 695, 697, 699

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: z/zu (Pinyin); TSO (Pound’s)

Meaning: bridge made from bamboo

Explanation: = bamboo + (person + pattern of bamboo stripes braided together) = bridge


made from bamboo

Page: 745

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: bù (Pinyin)

Meaning: no/not

Explanation: a flower bud = the beginning of something = the opposite of something

Page: 748, 290, 705

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain= to invoke spirits for rain=spirit
235

Page: 758, 563, 572, 575, 580, 695, 760

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and s implified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: w (Pinyin)

Meaning: wizard/witchcraft

Explanation: = facing all directions = communicating with all spirits= wizard/witchcraft

= rainbow + two persons = bridge + two worlds = medium = wizard/witchcraft

Page: 758

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:靈 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: líng (Pinyin); LING3, Ling2, ling (Pound’s)

Meaning: spirit

Explanation: rain +three mouths + (two person +rainbow) = rain + to show+ wizard = to pray for
rain= to invoke spirits for rain=spirit

Page: 760, 563, 572, 575, 580, 695, 758

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character:寶 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bo (Pinyin); pào, pao 3, paothree (Pound’s)


236

Meaning: treasure

Explanation: =roof +jade +shell = house + jewelry + money= treasure

= roof +jade +shell + urn = house + jewelry +money + dinnerware = treasure

Page: 760, 586, 656, 696

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

four
Pronunciation: bo (Pinyin); pao (Pound’s)

Meaning: leopard

Explanation: =image of a leopard = leopard

= image of a leopard + crouching = leopard

Page: 760

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 764, 660, 706, 712, 777, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 6


237

Character:業 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); yeh (Pound’s)

Meaning: career/profession

Explanation: image of a tree with a lush top = grown = career/profession

Page: 764, 707, 712, 784

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character:機 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin)

Meaning: machine/opportunity/pivot

Explanation: tree + (two silk yarns + spear) = machine to weave silk = machine = important =
pivot/opportunity

Page: 766, 623

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin); Je (Pound’s)

Meaning: millet

Explanation: crop + field + hand picking tiny bits = millet

Page: 767

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)


238

Pronunciation: hòu (Pinyin)

Meaning: behind/after

Explanation: human being upside down +mouth = the back opening of a human body = hind =
behind/after

Page: 767, 485, 496,

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: guǐ (Pinyin)

Meaning: ghost /the deceased one

Explanation: image of a person on +knees with frizzy hair on a huge head = ghost

Page: 768, 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: 諂 (traditional) (simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: chǎn (Pinyin)

Meaning: to flatter

Explanation: (main idea+ pattern +mouth) + (person + fire pit/trap) = to trap someone with
words = to flatter

Page: 768, 487, 496

Total Citation Time(s): 3

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: gun (Pinyin); (Pound’s)


239

Meaning: straw/hotel/manage/control

Explanation: bamboo leaves + house + spine bones = straw/hotel/manage/control

Page: 772

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: z (Pinyin); Tzu (Pound’s)

Meaning: baby/ancient title for respectful men

Explanation: image of a baby (large head out of proportion) = baby

Page: 772, 653

Total Citation Time(s): 2

Character:關 (traditional) (simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: gun (Pinyin); Kuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: to close

Explanation: image of latched gates = to close

Page: 773

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 777, 660, 706, 712, 764, 784


240

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze) (seal)

Pronunciation: zhng (Pinyin)

Meaning: end

Explanation: = =both ends = end

silk yarn + hand + reduced water = cloth + hard to get water = cloth + winter = the end
of a year = end

Page: 780

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

Pronunciation: sh(Pinyin)

Meaning: beginning

Explanation: female + pot (with steam) = a female looking at a pot = beginning of cooking =
beginning of cooking/family life

Page: 780

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: bn (Pinyin); pen (Pound’s)

Meaning: root/basic
241

Explanation: image of a tree with its root part stressed = root

Page: 784, 660, 706, 712, 764, 777

Total Citation Time(s): 6

Character:業 (traditional) (simplified) (bronze)

Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); yeh (Pound’s)

Meaning: career/profession

Explanation: image of a tree with a lush top = grown = career/profession

Page: 784, 707, 712, 764

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: j (Pinyin)

Meaning: suburb

Explanation: silk yarns + spear +field = places that produce silk and food for the big city =
suburb

Page: 787

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character:幣 (traditional) (simplified) or (seal)

Pronunciation: b (Pinyin)

Meaning: money bill

Explanation: = broken silk pieces = money bill (v.s. the coins)


242

= shabby + hand +drape = hand-torn silk pieces = money bill

Page: 787

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (seal)

Pronunciation: duān (Pinyin); TUAN1, touan, tuan, Tuan (Pound’s)

Meaning: upright

Explanation: human standing on a floor+ (hair +beard) = standing+ straight face = straight =
upright

Page: 792, 565, 581, 621

Total Citation Time(s): 4

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: xīn (Pinyin); hsin1, Sin, sin, hsin(Pound’s)

Meaning: new/to make new

Explanation: a grown tree+ an axe=to cut a tree= to make new

Page: 800, 265, 278, 591, 649, 662, 695, 704

Total Citation Time(s): 11

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop


243

Page: 800, 261, 507, 563, 573,591, 596, 645, 801

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: zhǐ (Pinyin); chih3, chèu, chih (Pound’s)

Meaning: stop

Explanation: one foot = to stop

Page: 801, 261, 507, 563, 573,591, 596, 645, 800

Total Citation Time(s): 9

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

Pronunciation: rì (Pinyin); jih4, jih, jih4.5 (Pound’s)

Meaning: sun

Explanation: a sun

Page: 801, 265, 591, 649, 662, 676, 738

Total Citation Time(s): 8

Character: (traditional and simplified) (bronze) (seal)

4
Pronunciation: jng (Pinyin); ching, ching (Pound’s)

Meaning: respect

Explanation: mouth + person with feather head + (stick +hand) = to respect with words,
costumes, and actions = respect

Page: 801, 575, 601, 711,

Total Citation Time(s): 4


244

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (bronze)

4
Pronunciation: y (Pinyin); Yü (Pound’s)

Meaning: jade

Explanation: pattern of jade’s transparent texture = jade

Page: 804

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle) (seal)

2
Pronunciation: h (Pinyin); ho (Pound’s)

Meaning: river

Explanation: = image of river banks = river

= river + (mouth + breath) = river + long breath= river flow = river

Page: 804

Total Citation Time(s): 1

Character: (traditional and simplified) (oracle)

4-5
Pronunciation: m (Pinyin); mu (Pound’s)

Meaning: tree

Explanation: image of a tree with roots and branches = tree

Page: 812

Total Citation Time(s): 1


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VITA

Baomei Lin was born in Zhangzhou, China, on December 8th. When she was one year old, she

became the adopted daughter of Zhoudi and Guoying Lin and moved to Fuzhou, China. After

graduating from the No. 4 Middle School in Fuzhou in 1992, she attended Beijing Normal

University where she received her B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature in July 1996 and

M.A. in Chinese Philology in July 2000. During the following year she was employed as a

lecturer at Beijing Normal University, teaching Chinese as a second language. In 2001, she

entered the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. Currently she is

an adjunct faculty member at North Lake College, Irving, Texas.

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