Sinographs 102 · Chapter 10

If and then

Classical reasoning runs on one hinge: X 則 Y — where X holds, Y follows. The hinge-character 則 is the twenty-third most frequent in the corpus, and it is two easy pictures standing together, so this chapter buys the pictures first:

Sign	Key	Says	Means	How to see it
貝	cowrie	bèi	cowrie shell; wealth	a shell face-on, two feelers trailing — early money, so it marks value words
刀	knife	dāo	knife, blade	a blade with its curved handle, two strokes; on the right of a compound it slims to 刂
分	divide	fēn	to divide; a share	八 "apart" with the knife 刀 beneath — splitting, drawn with its instrument
則	rule	zé	rule; then, in that case	the knife 刂 beside the cowrie 貝 — a standard, cut to last
先	first	xiān	first, ahead	a foot over a walking man — one step out in front; the foot is 止 worn slant
後	after	hòu	after, behind	a road-step, a little thread, a dragging foot — tied and trailing: falling behind

The ancients cut their standards into bronze — the received graph keeps a cowrie where the oldest vessels show a ritual cauldron — and a standard cut into metal is a rule. From “rule” the language took its hinge: what follows, follows as the rule dictates. 八, which began life meaning “apart,” gets the knife beneath it and becomes 分, dividing.

The knife at work

人以刀分貝。rén yǐ dāo fēn bèi"someone divides the cowries with a knife" — splitting the money, literally; 以 hitching the tool exactly as its chapter taught

天下分為四方。tiān xià fēn wéi sì fāng"the world divides into the four quarters" — 分為…, "divides into…"; every character here is yours

Practice lines assembled from taught characters.

First things first — then

The Great Learning’s method, on the hinge:

知所先後，則▢道矣。zhī suǒ xiān hòu, zé jìn dào yǐ"know what comes first and what comes after — then you are near the way" — most of wisdom is getting the ORDER right: what to fix first, what can wait. The box is "near"; 所 makes first-and-after a noun, 矣 closes the arrival, and 則 stands at the turn

Great Learning (Daxue). urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1d0052:043:1a · license: attribution.

Duty first, books after

Confucius lists a student’s obligations — behave at home, keep your word, care widely — and only then, on this chapter’s hinge:

行有▢▢，則以學文。xíng yǒu yú lì, zé yǐ xué wén"if, after doing all that, you have strength left over — then use it to study the written arts" — conduct first, books after; the boxes are "surplus" and "strength". Every other word is a chapter you have walked: 行 the doing, 以 the using, 學 the learning, 文 the pattern

Analects 1.6. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:001:6a · license: attribution.

Last in line, first in fact

先 and 後 close the chapter with the Laozi’s paradox of leadership:

是以▢人後其▢而▢先。shì yǐ shèng rén hòu qí shēn ér shēn xiān"that is why the wise person puts himself last — and finds himself first" — stop shoving to the front, and people put you there. The boxes are "sage" and (twice) "self"

Laozi 7. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:007:1a · license: attribution.

Where this leaves you

Two-thirds of the course, and the hinge of consequence is in your hand: conditions, inferences, sequences all run on 則. Next: what you can, what you get, and what you want.