Sinograph Addenda · Signs

king

Name	king
Reads	wáng
Means	king
Taught in	00 · Orientation

Where it comes from

The reading the tradition loved: three level strokes — heaven above, earth below, humankind between — joined by the one vertical that runs through all three; the king is what connects the levels. The earliest forms look more like an axe blade, the plain emblem of power, and the course says so honestly. Taught in the opening chapter as the roof-beam of the cosmology.

How to remember it

Three floors, one pillar. Whoever holds the pillar is the king — the character is a political theory in four strokes.

In the wild

元年春王正月。yuán nián chūn wáng zhēng yuè"first year, spring: the royal first month" — the opening line of the annals of Lu: time itself runs on the king's calendar

Spring and Autumn Annals, Duke Yin, year 1. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1e0113:013:5b · license: attribution.