204-403 Flashcards
248先before
If you have a COW with HUMAN LEGS, as the elements show us here, it can only be because you have two people in a COW-suit. I always thought I’d prefer to be the one standing BEFORE, rather than the one that holds up the rear and becomes the “butt” of everyone’s laughter.
275銘inscription
Take inscription in the sense of the NAME you ask the jeweler to carve on a GOLD bracelet or inside a GOLD ring to identify it’s owner or communicate some sort of sentimental message. It will help you if you can recall the first time you had this fine and the feelings you had at the time.
338獄prison
Dog is a low grade term for a spy. The PRISON here is a DOG prison. The PACK OF WILD DOGS (the long timers and hardened criminals) picking on the poor CHIHUAHUA. The only thing to protect the CHIHUAHUA are his shrill and frightened WORDS. (WORDS between the two)
367桟scaffold
Prior to the use of metal, TREES were once cut down and bound together for use as SCAFFOLDING material. In the case of this kanji here, it is not a sky scraper that is being made, but a simple FLOAT.
383錠lock
METAL of itself doesn’t LOCK. It needs to be so DETERMINED by a locksmith. Now make a concrete image of that.
384走run
Running, we are told here, MENDS the SOIL. Observe in the following frames how much this kanji can embrace other elements from below, much the same way as the element for ROAD does. Note, too, that in order to do this, the final stroke needs to be lengthened.
400壊demolition
If you stand too close to a DEMOLITION site, the dust might sting you like NEEDLES in your EYE and get your GARMENTs all dirty.
379正correct
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a SINGLE STEP” says the Chinese proverb. Here we see ONE FOOTPRINT, complementing that proverb with the sound advice that if the first step is not made CORRECTLY, the whole point of journey will be forfeited. This is the ideal that teachers are supposed to have in CORRECTING their students, and parents in CORRECTING their children.
278導guidance
When we accept someone’s guidance, we permit ourselves to be GLUED to a certain ROAD or WAY of doing something, and try to “stick” to it.
228葉leaf
Flower, generation, tree first and last seem logical enough. Since it’s the LEAF that feeds the FLOWERS on a TREE. The element for GENERATION interposed between the two suggests that the movement of a TREE from one GENERATION to the next is like “turning over a new LEAF”
402遠distant
Keep distant from a *lidded crock* on the* road* wrapped in a *scarf*. It might be a bomb.
272銅copper
Picture an order if MONKS serving as chaplains for the police force. Their special habit, made of protective METAL, is distinguished by a row of COPPER buttons just like the “cops” they serve.
232暮livelihood
Imagine that you have chosen the occupation of the keeper of a GRAVEYARD and spend your DAY tending to other’s deadwood in order to make your means of LIVELIHOOD.
326栄flourish
Flourish (to bud and burst into bloom, much as a TREE) does is the same in the SCHOOLHOUSE. We flourish into what we want to become when in the SCHOOL HOUSE, in this case, a tree. Just like in a SCHOOLHOUSE our minds FLOURISH like a TREE
381政politics
To the many definition for POLITICS that already exist, this character offers yet another: CORRECT TASKMASTERING. Think about what the primitives tell us. On the one hand, we see the pessimistic wisdom that POLITICS has to do with TASKMASTERING, maneuvering people with or without their will. And in the other, we see the campaign assurances that this duty can be performed CORRECTLY if only the right candidate is given a chance.
243狩hunt
One of the worst thing about going HUNTINg is to GUARD your take from the WILD DOGS. Just like the duck hunt dog, fucking asshole.
283逃escape
Like in a dream, when you are running it seems like you can’t get fast enough, like a TURTLE on an expressway. (Since the TURTLE is on the ROAD and not on the left, it can keep it’s full kanji shape)
225苦suffering
Suffering we are given here is that of a flower that has grown OLD. When a flower ages, it pales and dries up, and probably even suffers.
323売sell
A SAMURAI, out of a job, is going door-to-door SELLING little windup CROWNS with HUMANS LEGS that run on the floor looking like headless monarchs,
246特special
Not the word specialty. Like the sacred COWS of India that wander freely without fear from being butchered and ground into hamburger. Even though the practice is originally a Hindu one, the BUDDHIST monks refuses to take the life of any sentient being makes it only fitting that the COWS should be placed on the sacred grounds of a BUDDHIST TEMPLE in this kanji.
282迫urge
To URGE someone to do something, you make the WAY as appealing as possible, perhaps even WHITEwashing it a bit. Whitewashing is to make furniture look better by giving it a new look, what a clever WAY to make things appealing to URGE someone into doing things.
395婿bridegroom
The virgin bridegroom tries to understand the new, mysterious *part of* his *woman’s body* - but with little success. It’s a *zoo* down there! (primitives placement: the part of the body is ‘down there’ - the woman is ‘left’ unsatisfied).
266主lord
“A man’s home is his castle” goes the proverb from an age where it was the male who was LORD of the household. Fundamentally it means that everyone of us is a bit (or a DROP) of a KING in our own environment.
349調tune
It isn’t a complete TUNE without a LAP of WORDS that go with that lovely TUNE. Well, except most electronic music,