Sinograph Addenda · Signs

mouth

Name	mouth
Reads	kǒu
Means	mouth; an opening
Taught in	02 · The world in pictures

Where it comes from

An open mouth, squared off by the brush the way the sun-disc was. As a component it is the single busiest meaning-part in the script — anything said, eaten, tasted, or shouted tends to carry it; this course alone builds 品 and 味 on it. Taught in the pictures chapter.

How to remember it

An open mouth, mid-word. Guard it well — the classics never stop saying so.

In the wild

三緘其口。sān jiān qí kǒu"its mouth thrice sealed" — the golden statue Confucius found in the temple of Zhou, the old world's monument to guarded speech

The mouth-chapter of the Tang anthology Bai-Kong liutie, preserving the Kongzi jiayu story. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR3k0008:030:17a · license: attribution.