Sinograph Addenda · Signs

east

Name	east
Reads	dōng
Means	east
Taught in	09 · The art of asking

Where it comes from

The schoolbook story every learner meets: the sun 日 caught rising through a tree 木 — dawn, the east. The older graphs more likely draw a provisions sack tied at both ends, borrowed for the direction’s sound. The course tells both and marks which is memory-hook and which is history. Taught in the asking chapter.

How to remember it

The sun tangled in the branches at dawn: east — a story to hold, whatever the scribes first drew.

In the wild

東方未明。dōng fāng wèi míng"the east is not yet bright" — every character yours: the Odes' worker dressed in the dark, called to court before dawn

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