Sinographs 102 · Chapter 07

With, by, from, at

English has prepositions; Literary Chinese has small verbs that learned the trade. 以 was “to take” and became by means of; 於 parks a phrase at, in, from; 自 is from — and, glued to a verb, oneself; 與 is together with. Each hitches a phrase to the sentence’s main verb, and between them they do most of what a case system would:

Sign	Key	Says	Means	How to see it
以	by-means-of	yǐ	by, with; in order to	a person and the thing taken up — "take" worn to grammar
用	use	yòng	to use; usefulness	by the received account a bucket pressed into service
於	at	yú	at, in, to, from	a swallow-shape lent to the busiest preposition; the older 于 does the same work
自	self	zì	from; oneself	a nose face-on — the thing one points at to mean "me"
與	give-with	yǔ	to give; with, and	four hands passing one object — giving, sharing; hence "with"

The hitches at work

王與民出。wáng yǔ mín chū"the king goes out with the people" — 與 hitches a companion to the subject

民用之。mín yòng zhī"the people use it" — 用 still works as a plain verb too; grammar never took its day job

Practice lines assembled from taught characters.

Look at the how

以 keeps a trace of “take” in one of Confucius’ most practical sentences — how to read a person:

▢其所以。shì qí suǒ yǐ"watch what a person does" — literally "look at that-by-which he acts": 所 from the last chapter reaching into 以. The passage continues: then look at WHY he does it, then at what contents him — and no one can hide. The box is "look at"

Analects 2.10, the first step of the three-step x-ray. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:002:11a · license: attribution.

Use is what isn’t there

The Laozi’s wheel-hub argument, closing on 以 and 用 in one breath — thirty spokes share a hub, and the cart works because the hub’s center is EMPTY:

有之以為▢，yǒu zhī yǐ wéi lì,"what is there gives the advantage,"

無之以為用。wú zhī yǐ wéi yòng"what is not there gives the use" — the clay makes the pot, but the hollow holds the water; rooms are useful because of the space inside the walls. The box in the first line is "advantage"

Laozi 11, the conclusion. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:011:1a · license: attribution.

From a hair-tip; from yourself

於 marks the source in the Laozi’s image of patient growth, and 自 turns knowing inward:

生於▢末。shēng yú háo mò"it grew from a hair-thin tip" — said of a tree two arms can barely circle: every huge thing began negligibly small. 末, the treetop-tip of Foundations, with 於 marking the source; the box is "fine-hair"

知人者▢，自知者明。zhī rén zhě zhì, zì zhī zhě míng"one who knows others is clever; one who knows himself sees clearly" — 自 slipped before the verb makes it reflexive: self-knowing. The box is "clever"

Laozi 64 and 33. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:064:1a · license: attribution.

Where this leaves you

Four hitches and a bucket: with them a sentence can say where, whence, with whom, and by what means. Next: how a sentence says it is FINISHED — the little words of already and at last — and the most famous opening line in Chinese books.