Sinograph Addenda · Signs

peace

Namepeace
Readsān
Meanspeace, ease, safety; how?
Taught in09 · The art of asking

Where it comes from

A woman seated under the roof — the classic account: the household settled, the house at rest. The classics also borrow it as a question word (“wherein? how?”), but its heart is peace, ease, safety — the thing good government owes the old. Taught in the asking chapter.

How to remember it

Roof over, seated within: peace.

In the wild

lǎo zhě ān zhī"the old — give them peace" — asked his life's wish, the Master answers in three clauses, and this is the first
Analects 5.26 — the wish continues: friends trusted, the young embraced. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:005:29a · license: attribution.