Sinograph Addenda · Signs

moon

Name	moon
Reads	yuè
Means	the moon; a month
Taught in	02 · The world in pictures

Where it comes from

A crescent with its inner shading — the moon is always drawn waxing, never full, so it can never be mistaken for the sun. As a word it is the moon and the month the moon measures. Taught in the pictures chapter.

How to remember it

The moon with two shadows resting inside its crescent. Whenever a character needs night, light, or a month, look for this shape at its side.

In the wild

日往則月來，月往則日來。rì wǎng zé yuè lái, yuè wǎng zé rì lái"the sun goes, and the moon comes; the moon goes, and the sun comes" — the two lights taking turns, as they do inside 明

Zhouyi, Appended Words (Xici II), in the compilation Zhouyi jijie. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1a0008:015:16b · license: attribution.