Sinograph Addenda · Signs

書book · shū · to write; writings, document; the Documents

book

Where it comes from

The top is a hand gripping a brush — the writing-hand that also tops “brush” and “paint”. Beneath it the old phonetic wore down until it looks like 曰say · yuē · to say — the quotation-opener of the classical books, which two millennia of learners have happily read as “what the brush sets down as said.” As a title, 書book · shū · to write; writings, document; the Documents is the Book of Documents — the court speeches of the oldest kings — which is why “the 書book · shū · to write; writings, document; the Documents says” carries such weight. Taught in the one-who chapter.

How to remember it

A hand gripping the brush at the top, 曰say · yuē · to say — the quotation-opener of the classical books “say” at the bottom: what was said, brushed down — a book.

In the wild