Sinograph Addenda · Signs

head

Namehead
Readsshǒu
Meanshead; chief, first
Taught in05 · The belonging thread

Where it comes from

A head drawn in profile with the hair still on it — the classic account; the eye survives inside the frame. From the body’s head come the extended senses: chief, first, the head of a matter. Under the walking radical it becomes , the road a head travels. Taught in the belonging-thread chapter.

How to remember it

Hair, brow, eye: the head, first of the body’s list.

In the wild

Laozi 14. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:014:1a · license: attribution.