Sinographs 102 · Chapter 09

The art of asking

A classical question needs no question mark — the words carry it. 何 asks what; 安 asks where (and, slyly, how could); 乎 at the end of a sentence turns the whole thing into a spoken question. And 可 answers half of them: can, may, it works.

Sign	Key	Says	Means	How to see it
可	can	kě	can, may; acceptable	a mouth with breath allowed out — permission, drawn
何	what	hé	what, why	the person-sign thinned, 可 lending the sound
安	peace	ān	peace; where(in)?	a woman 女 at rest under a roof — and, borrowed, the question "wherein?"
東	east	dōng	east	the sun 日 in a tree 木 — so the schoolbook; likelier a tied sack
方	direction	fāng	direction, quarter	a disputed picture — plough-bar, boat prow, yoke; no winner picked

安 you may recognize as “peace” — the woman safe under the roof. The classics borrow the calm word for an unquiet job: wherein? where? how could? Context tells you which 安 is speaking.

Question and answer

王安在？wáng ān zài"where is the king?" — 安 before the verb asks the where of it

何謂天？hé wèi tiān"what do we call heaven?" — 何 fronted, the naming verb after: the shape of every definition-question

日出東方。rì chū dōng fāng"the sun comes out in the eastern quarter" — the answer register: no particle, flat statement

Practice lines assembled from taught characters.

Not yet bright in the east

方 and 東 in the wild — the Odes’ complaint of the clerk dragged to court before dawn:

東方未明。dōng fāng wèi míng"the east is not yet bright" — and already they are shouting for him; the oldest surviving grumble about early meetings. 未, the not-yet of Foundations, doing its precise work

Odes, "The east not yet bright." urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1c0001:008:24a · license: attribution.

Is that not a joy?

The rhetorical question — 不亦…乎, “is that not…?” — is the Analects’ favorite way of answering while asking. The second line of its opening arrives here, where its grammar lives:

有▢自▢方來，不亦▢乎？yǒu péng zì yuǎn fāng lái, bù yì lè hū"to have friends come from the far quarters — is that not a joy?" — someone who shares your learning has crossed distance to find you; the question expects only yes. The boxes are "friend", "far", "joy"; 自…來, "come from…", is the coverb chapter cashing in

Analects 1.1, second clause. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:001:1a · license: attribution.

The teacher’s license

可 fused with 以 makes 可以, “can thereby” — the classical “qualified to”:

可以為▢矣。kě yǐ wéi shī yǐ"such a one can serve as a teacher" — the verdict half of a famous sentence: whoever keeps the old warm and still meets the new has earned the seat. The box is "teacher"; the sentence's first half waits for a later chapter's word

Analects 2.11, the conclusion. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:002:12a · license: attribution.

Where this leaves you

You can ask what, where, and is-it-not, and answer with can. Next: the hinge of every argument — if this, THEN that — bought with a cowrie and a knife.