Sinographs 102 · Chapter 13

Like and alike

How does a language with no “-er” and no “more” compare things? With verbs of likeness: 如 and 若, to be like — and negated, 不如, to be not-as-good-as, the classical comparative. 同 says the same; 好 loves; 善 is the good itself; and 長 is the long (read cháng) and the grown (read zhǎng):

Sign	Key	Says	Means	How to see it
如	like	rú	to be like; if	woman 女 and mouth 口 — the old lists' account of assenting, gone to likeness
好	fond	hào	to love; good	woman 女 and child 子 side by side — what is dear, loved
若	as-if	ruò	to be like; if	a kneeling figure smoothing long hair — yielding, going along; hence "like"
同	same	tóng	same, together	a cover held over a mouth 口 — many mouths under one roof, speaking as one
善	good	shàn	good; good at	the sheep-sign over speech — words gentle as the flock
長	long	cháng	long; to grow	a long-haired elder on a staff — the hair is the length

好 you have met as a graph; its verb reading hào, “to love,” is this chapter’s key. 如 doubles as “if” at a clause’s head — likeness and supposition were one thought.

Not as good as

The classical comparative is a ladder of 不如, and its most quoted rungs are about learning itself:

知之者不如好之者，好之者不如▢之者。zhī zhī zhě bù rú hào zhī zhě, hào zhī zhě bù rú lè zhī zhě"knowing it is not as good as loving it; loving it is not as good as delighting in it" — the three floors of mastery: information, devotion, joy. The box is "delight"; 者 builds each knower and lover exactly as its chapter taught

Analects 6.20. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:006:26a · license: attribution.

The highest good is like water

若 opens the Laozi’s most quoted four characters — and the line that explains them:

上善若水。shàng shàn ruò shuǐ"the highest good is like water" — four characters, no box, no gap

水善▢萬物而不▢。shuǐ shàn lì wàn wù ér bù zhēng"water is good to all ten thousand things — and does not contend" — it helps everything, fights nothing, and settles in the low places everyone else avoids. Here 善 works as "good at, good to." The boxes are "benefit" and "contend"

Laozi 8, the opening. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:008:1a · license: attribution.

What to do about it

如 in its odd, ancient idiom 如…何, “what is to be done about…”:

人而不仁，如▢何？rén ér bù rén, rú lǐ hé"a person without humaneness — what are the rituals to him?" — ceremony performed by someone hollow is just choreography; the form cannot save the substance. The box is "ritual"

Analects 3.3. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:003:3a · license: attribution.

Same cloak, same wanting

同 takes the soldiers’ oath, and 善 answers a frightened ruler:

與子同▢。yǔ zǐ tóng páo"I will share my war-coat with you" — the Odes' brotherhood song: same cloak, same battle, same fate. The box is "war-coat"

子欲善而民善矣。zǐ yù shàn ér mín shàn yǐ"you want good — and the people become good" — said to a ruler who offered to execute his way to order: your wanting IS the policy. Every character is taught, and 矣 marks the change arriving

Odes, "No clothes?" and Analects 12.19. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1c0001:011:44a · license: attribution.

Where this leaves you

Likeness, preference, and the comparative ladder — the language compares by verb, not by ending. Two chapters remain: everything counted, and the way things follow.