Lesson Two



On to lesson two! This is where things get harder.

古

Old

Heisig

The primitive elements that compose this character are and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a pictograph of a tombstone with a cross on top. Just think back to one of those graveyards you have visited, or better still, used to play in as a child, with old inscriptions on the tombstones.

This departure from the primitive elements in favor of a pictograph will take place now and again at these early stages, and almost never after that. So you need not worry about cluttering up your memory with too many character "drawings."


 * Used as a primitive element, this kanji keeps its key word sense of old, but care should be taken to make that abstract notion as graphic as posible.

Me

吾

I

Heisig

There are a number of kanji for the word I, but the others tend to be more specific than this one. The key word here should be taken in the general psychological sense of the "perceiving subject." Now the one place in our bodies where all five senses are concentrated in is the head, which has no less than five mouths: 2 nostrils, 2 ears, and 1 mouth. Hence, five mouths = I.

Me

冒

Risk

Heisig

Remember when you were young and your mother told you never to look directly into the sun for fear you might burn out your eyes? Probably you were foolish enough to risk a quick glance once or twice; but just as probably, you passed that bit of folk wisdom onto someone else as you grew older. Here, too, the kanji that has a sun above and an eye right below looking up at it has the meaning of risk (see frame 11).

Me

I kinda like Heisig's for this.

朋

Companion

Heisig

The first companion that God made, as the Bible story goes, was Eve. Upon seeing her, Adam exclaimed, " of my flesh!" And that is precisely what this kanji says in so many strokes.

Me

I don't like using moon as a radical for flesh. It just doesn't sit right with me. As for this kanji, I just memorized this as is (for Chinese class actually), but for anyone who has seen Sailor Moon, Luna and Artemis are two cats from the moon, and are almost always together. They are constant companions.

明

Bright

Heisig

Among nature's bright lights, there are two that the Biblical myth has God set in the sky: the sun to rule over the day and the moon to rule the night. Each of the has come to represent one of the common connotations of this key word: the sun, the bright insight of the clear thinker, and the moon, the bright intuition of the poet and the seer (see frame 13).

Me

And this is when Heisig’s religious focus really gets in the way in my opinion. I just think of it this way. On a full moon night, the sky is really bright, right? Well, imagine how bright it would be if the sun AND the full moon were out.

Alternatively, think of the time right after a lunar eclipse. The moon has moved past the sun, and your eyes haven't adjusted, so it looks really bright.

唱

Chant

Heisig

This one is easy! You have one mouth making no noise (the choirmaster) and two mouths with wagging tongues (the minimum for a chorus). So think of the keyword, chant, as monestary singing and the kanji is yours forever.

Me

晶

Sparkle

Heisig

What else can the word sparkle suggest if not a diamond? And if you've ever held a diamond up to the light, you will have noticed how every facet of it becomes like a miniature sun. The kanji is a picture of a tiny sun in three places (that is, "everywhere"), to give the sense of something that sparkles on all sides. Just like a diamond. In writing the primitive elements three times, note again how the rule for writing given in frame 4 holds true not only for the strokes in each individual element but also for the disposition of the elements in the character as a whole.

Me

品

Goods

Heisig

As in the character for sparkle, the triplication of a single element in this character indicates "everywhere" or "heaps of." When we think of goods in modern industrial society, we think of what has been mass-produced--that is to say, produced for the "masses" of open mouths waiting like fledglings in a nest to "consume" whatever comes their way.

Me

I always think of this pictographically. Every time I hear “goods,” I think of boxes stacked up. This is three boxes of goods waiting to be sold.

呂

Spine

Heisig

This character is rather like a picture of two of the vertebrae in the spine linked by a single stroke.

Me

昌

Prosperous

Heisig

What we mentioned in the previous two frames about 3 of something meaning "everywhere" or "heaps of" was not meant to be taken lightly. In this kanji we see two suns, one atop the other, which, if we are not careful, is easily confused in memory with the three suns of sparkle. Focus on the number this way: since we speak of times as sunny, what could be more prosperous than a sky with two suns in it? Just be sure to actually SEE them there.

Me

早

Early

Heisig

This kanji is actually a picture of the first flower of the day, which we shall, in defiance of botanical science, call the sunflower, since it begins with the element for sun and is held up on a stem with two leaves (the pictographic representation of the final two strokes). This time, however, we shall ignore the pictograph and imagine sunflowers with needles for stems, which can be plucked and used to darn your socks.

The sense of early is easily remembered if one thinks of the sunflower as the early riser in the garden, because the sun, showing favoritism towards its namesake, shines on it before all the others (see frame 10).


 * As a primitive element, this kanji takes the meaning of sunflower, which was used to make the abstract key word early more graphic.

Me

旭

Rising Sun

Heisig

This character is a sort of nickname for the Japanese flag with its well-known emblem of the rising sun. If you can picture two seams running down that great red sun, then imagine it sitting on a baseball bat for a flagpole, you have a slightly irreverent--but not altogether inaccurate--picture of how the sport has caught on in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Me

At nine in the morning, the sun is still rising. That's how I remember this one.

世

Generation

Heisig

We generally consider one generation as a period of thirty (or ten plus ten plus ten) years. If you look at this kanji in its completed form--not in its stroke order--you will see three tens. When writing it, think of the lower horizontal lines as "addition" lines written under the numbers to add them up. Thus: ten "plus" ten "plus" ten = thirty. Actually, it's a lot easier doing it with a pencil than reading it in a book.

Me

Honestly, this kanji is pretty weird looking, so it's not that hard to just memorize and recognize.

胃

Stomach

Heisig

You will need to refer back to frames 13 and 14 here for the special meaning of the two primitive elements that make up this character: flesh (part of the body) and brain. What the kanji says, if you look at it, is that the part of the body that keeps the brain in working order is the stomach. To keep the elements in proper order, when you write this kanji think of the brain as being "held up" by the flesh.

Me

Heisig ignores a simpler (but possibly etymologically inaccurate) association between rice field and the storage of food in a part of the body.

旦

Nightbreak

Heisig

While we normally refer to the start of the day as "daybreak," Japanese commonly refers to it as the "opening up of night" into day. Hence the choice of this rather odd keyword, nightbreak. The single stroke at the bottom represents the floor (have a peek again at frame 1) or the horizon over which the sun is poking its head.

Me

I can’t stand either Heisig’s story OR his keyword for this one. It’s the sun rising over the horizon, thus daybreak. Thinking of it as “nightbreak” makes me think of it as sunset.

胆

Gallbladder

Heisig

The pieces of this character should be easily recognizable: on the left, the element for part of the body, and on the right, the character for nightbreak, which we have just met. What all of this has to do with gall bladder is not immediately clear. But all we need to do is give a slight twist to the traditional biblical advice about not letting the sun set on your anger (which ancient medicine associated with the choler or bile that the gall bladder is supposed to filter out), and change it to "not letting the night break on your anger" (or your gall)--and the work of remembering the kanji is done.And the improvement is not a bad piece of advice in its own right, since anger, like so many other things, can often be calmed by letting the sun set on it and then "sleeping it off."

Me

The confusion over nightbreak makes it hard to find a satisfactory image for this character as well. I certainly wasn't expecting knowledge of the Christian bible to become a prerequisite for remembering Japanese characters!

亘

Span

Heisig

"Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset..." goes the song of the Fiddler on the Roof. You can almost see the journey of the sun as it moves from one horizon (the ) to its noonday heights in the sky overhead (ceiling) and then disappears over the other horizon--day after day, marking the span of our lives.

Me

This one’s not that bad. It is the sun, and both horizons. A certain “span” of time elapses for the sun to pass both horizons.

凹

Concave

Heisig

You couldn't have asked for a better key word for this kanji! Just have a look at it: a perfect image of a concave lense (remembering, of course, that kanji square off rounded things), complete with its own little "cave." Now all you have to do is learn how to write it.

Me

This one is pretty simple. It's a box with a concave spot in it. Really simple to remember and recognize.

凸

Convex

Heisig

Maybe this helps you see how the Japanese have no trouble keeping convex distinct from concave. Note the odd feeling of the third stroke. If it doesn't feel all that strange now, by the time you are done with this book, it will. There are very few times you will have to write it.

Me

Again, this one is pretty recognizable. Just the opposite of the previous one.