Lesson 8

Question 1

stream
[134]

Answer 1

川

A pictograph of a stream.

*P: stream, flood

Question 2

state
[135]

Answer 2

州

State are just drops of land separated by rivers/streams.

*drops of something, stream

Question 3

obey
[136]

Answer 3

順

If someone is a “stream head” they go with the flow of what everyone else is doing and obey the person who is the head of an organization.

*stream, head

Question 4

water
[137]

Answer 4

水

A walking stick being dropped vertically into the water, and water splashes out in all four directions around it.

*walking stick, droplets
*P: water

Question 5

icicle
[138]

Answer 5

氷

The walking stick is frozen in the water. There is even a icicle growing on it!

*water, a drop of something

Question 6

eternity
[139]

Answer 6

永

One drop of water causes ripples in the surface going outward for eternity.

*water, a drop of something

Question 7

spring
[140]

Answer 7

泉

When you look at a spring of water, where the water bubbles up on top it is white.

*white, water
*P: spring

Question 8

gland
[141]

Answer 8

腺

Dig into your flesh and pull out a lymph gland. Now give it a squeeze and watch a spring of lymph spout out of it.

*flesh/body part, spring

Question 9

meadow
[142]

Answer 9

原

A young maiden is skipping through a beautiful spring meadow. Along the way fresh springs are erupting from underground spraying water around her dramatically. But the meadow ends suddenly in a cliff and the maiden skips right off the edge!

*cliff, spring

Question 10

petition
[143]

Answer 10

願

In the same meadow the maiden was running through there is a sculpture of a giant head. It is a deity. The people in the local area knelt before the giant head on the meadow and petitioned it to put safeguards on the cliff.

*meadow, head

Question 11

swim
[144]

Answer 11

泳

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming (through the water for eternity).

*water, eternity

Question 12

marsh
[145]

Answer 12

沼

Land becomes marshy because it gets really thirsty and seduced water to come to it, but it was too good at it.

*water, seduce

Question 13

open sea
[146]

Answer 13

沖

The key word open sea readily suggests being out in the middle of a great body of water.

*water, in the middle of

Question 14

pan-
[147]

Answer 14

汎

“The sense of the key word here is the ‘all-inclusive’ we find in terms like ‘Pan-American Games’. Instead of a water sports event that brings together the best talent, think of a meet of the region’s most mediocre athletes, many of whom cannot even tread water. The ‘Pan-Mediocre Water Sports Competition’.”

*water. mediocre

Question 15

creek
[148]

Answer 15

江

The creek is a lesson in “water-craft”. Unlike other larger bodies of water, creeks are often just a little dribble of water. You can dig one on your own and probably did as a little kid. You find a bigger body of water and dig a small side path into dry land. Thus creek = water-craft.

*water, craft/I-beam/artificial

Question 16

cleanse
[149]

Answer 16

汰

A plump person went to a very successful skinny spa. It had special cleansing medicinal water. They got into the spa’s water and their excess fat melted away, leaving a greasy scum on top of the water but the customer fully cleansed.

*water, plump

Question 17

soup
[150]

Answer 17

汁

Soup is made by adding a bunch of different things to water. What is the best soup on the world? The special ten-ingredient soup.

*water, ten

Question 18

grains of sand
[151]

Answer 18

沙

We already know that good sand has only a few stones in it, but to make it perfect there should a drop of water for every grain of sand.

*water, few

Question 19

tide
[152]

Answer 19

潮

The pair to eventide, morning tide.

*water, morning

Question 20

source
[153]

Answer 20

源

The key word source suggests this character is referring to where the water comes from. Here it suggests that the water comes from the bubbling springs in the meadow.

*water, meadow

Question 21

lively
[154]

Answer 21

活

When a party is lively there is a lot of talking. When the talking gets a little too lively drops of water (spittle) go flying from their flailing tongues.

*water, tongue

Question 22

extinguish
[155]

Answer 22

消

The perfect way to extinguish a fire would be to make sure that every drop of water hit a spark of the fire.

*water, spark/candle

Question 23

but of course
[156]

Answer 23

況

*“Just picture yourself ready to go off on your first date as a teenager, and having your mother grill you about your manners and ask you embarrassing questions about your hygiene. ‘Did you have a good shower?’ ‘But of course….’ you reply annoyed.”

*water, teenager

Question 24

river
[157]

Answer 24

河

Unlike the little stream, the river is a body of water that can accommodate boats. Here we see that the little train that could has now become a riverboat and is chugging up the river.

*water, can

Question 25

overnight
[158]

Answer 25

泊

“When you stop at an inn for an overnight rest, all you expect is a bit of water for a wash and a set of clean white sheets to wrap your weary bones in.

*water, white

Question 26

lake
[159]

Answer 26

湖

Lakes are bodies of water created from the melting of old water flesh (glaciers).

*water, old, flesh

Question 27

fathom
[160]

Answer 27

測

In order to fathom the depth of a body of water one would have to use a ruler of preposterous length to reach its bottom.

*water, rule/ruler

Question 28

soil
[161]

Answer 28

土

A pictograph of a cross marking a burial stuck into the soil.

*P: soil, ground, dirt, land

Question 29

spit
[162]

Answer 29

吐

If you got a mouth full of dirt you would most definitely spit it back out onto the ground.

*mouth, ground/dirt/soil

Question 30

pressure
[163]

Answer 30

圧

“One of the things that causes the erosion of soil is the excessive pressure of the topsoil on the lower soil. This can be caused by any number of things from heavy rainfall to heavy buildings to the absence of sufficient deep-rooted vegetation to hold the layers together. Here was see a steep cliff without a tree in sight. The slightest pressure on it will cause a landslide.”

*cliff, ground/dirt/soil

Question 31

cape
[164]

Answer 31

埼

The key word “cape” refers to a small strip of land like Cape Cod. Except this small piece of land is know for strange things happening there. Picture it being full of haunted looking houses and a spooky Halloween sky overhead. It is known as Cape Strange (or Cape Odd).

*land, strange

Question 32

hedge
[165]

Answer 32

垣

“The hedge depicted in this frame is not your ordinary run-of-the-suburbs shrubbery, but the miraculous hedge of briar roses that completely spanned the castle grounds in which Sleeping Beauty lay for a hundred years, so that none but her predestined beloved could find his way through it.”

*land, span

Question 33

inlay
[166]

Answer 33

填

“When we hear the word inlay, we usually think of setting precious stones in pieces of jewelry, but the primitive elements here suggest truth being inlaid in the soil. You might think instead of the cosmic wisdom that inlaid the truth of the universe in the stuff of the earth.”

*soil/ground, truth

Question 34

squared jewel
[167]

Answer 34

圭

The key word “depicts a mammoth precious stone, several feet high, made by piling up large heaps of soil on top of one another.”

soil, soil
P: ivy (That creepy vegetation that covers the surface of the ground to form a sort of ‘second’ ground that can get somewhat tricky to walk on without tripping.)

Question 35

seal
[168]

Answer 35

封

The assassin sealed all her letters to her enemies with poison ivy glue to torture them just a bit more.

*ivy, glue

Question 36

horizon
[169]

Answer 36

涯

“After seeing a constant horizon of water, water everywhere for months at sea, could there be anything more delightful to the eyes than to look astern and see the ivy-clad cliffs of land on a new horizon?”

*water, cliff, ivy

Question 37

Buddhist temple
[170]

Answer 37

寺

“You have heard of people ‘attaching’ themselves to a particular sect? Here is you chance to take that metaphor literally and imagine some fellow walking into a Buddhist temple with a fervent resolve to attach himself to the place. Since there is plenty of unused land around the precincts, he simply picks out a suitable patch, brushes the soles of his feet with glue, steps down firmly, and so joins the Buddhist temple as a ‘permanent member.’”

*soil/land, glue

Question 38

time
[171]

Answer 38

時

Imagine the man, now a monk, who glued himself to the Buddhist temple pondering the essential question of ‘what it time?’ as the sun rises and sets behind the temple.

*sun, Buddhist temple

Question 39

level
[172]

Answer 39

均

For some reason you are measuring soil using a ladle. You scoop the soil with your ladle and make the top of it level. “The excess drops of soil are brushed off the top, which accounts for the added drop at the ladle’s edge.”

*soil, ladle, a drop of something

Question 40

fire
[173]

Answer 40

火

The pictograph of a bonfire.

*P: fireplace/hearth/conflagration (when written as four dots at the bottom of a kanji it means flames/cauldron/cooking fire/oven fire)

Question 41

inflammation
[174]

Answer 41

炎

When part of your body is inflamed it puffs up and gets warm. It almost feels like there are little fires building up under your skin expanding and warming it. Hence the stacking of fires on top of each other.

*fire, fire

Question 42

anxiety
[175]

Answer 42

煩

“The existential condition of anxiety that arises from the inevitable frustration of our worldly passions is contained in this character. The head is set afire, causing deep torment of spirit (and a whopper of a headache).”

*fire, head

Question 43

thin
[176]

Answer 43

淡

“The first water-related inflammation that pops into mind is dehydration, the principal symptom of which is that it makes one shrivel up and look very, very thin.”

*water, inflammation

Question 44

lamp
[177]

Answer 44

灯

When lamps were first invented they weren’t anything more than a bit of fire nailed to the wall.

*fire, nail

Question 45

farm
[178]

Answer 45

畑

Here “we find the essential ingredients for a farm: a warm hearth to sit by at night, and a well-plowed field to grow one’s crops”.

*fire, rice field

Question 46

disaster
[179]

Answer 46

災

“Of all of nature’s disasters, this kanji picks out two of the worst: floods and fires. To recall the disposition of the elements, think of nature’s solution to nature’s own problem: a great flood pouring down over a great forest fire.”

*stream/flood, fire

Question 47

ashes
[180]

Answer 47

灰

“Now what do you do with that bucket of ashes you have just cleaned out of the fireplace? You walk to the edge of a cliff and tip it upside down, watching as they are swept away in the wind like a swarm of gray mosquitoes. Thus the fire, once it has turned to ashes, ends up at the bottom of the cliff.”

*cliff, fire

Question 48

spot
[181]

Answer 48

点

“If you look into the flickering of a fire for a long time and then turn aside, you will see spots before your eyes. Although nobody ever thought of such a thing before - at least as far as I know, they didn’t - imagine using those spots as a technique for fortune-telling. The old witch sits before her cauldron and watches the spots that show up when she turns to look at you, and from that tells your fortune. Think of it as a kind of spot-check on your fortune.”

*fortune telling, flames/cauldron/cooking fire/oven fire

Question 49

illuminate
[182]

Answer 49

照

When you illuminate a space you shine a light in a place that was previously dark. Imagine a magician walking into a dark room and conjuring a shining ball of flame in their hand to illuminate the space. The light of the flames glints off the shinning surfaces of countless treasures.

*shining, flames/cauldron/cooking fire/oven fire

Question 50

fish
[183]

Answer 50

魚

This kanji tell the unfortunate story of fish that get caught. “First a fish is caught and bound up on a line with its unfortunate school-mates; when the fisherman gets home, he cuts off the head and tosses it, with the entrails, out into the rice fields for fertilizer; and the rest he sets in a skillet over a cooking fire for his supper.”

*bound up, rice field, flames/cauldron/cooking fire/oven fire

Question 51

fishing
[184]

Answer 51

漁

This kanji show the full picturing of fishing. First, before being caught, cut up, and cooked, the fish was swimming in the water.

*water, fish