Sinograph Addenda · Signs

person

Name	person
Reads	rén
Means	a human being; other people
Taught in	00 · Orientation

Where it comes from

A person walking, seen from the side — two legs and a leaning back. The oracle-bone forms already show exactly this figure, and it has never been anything else: 人 is one of the script’s few characters whose picture-story is simply true. It is also the seed of a family: spread the arms and it is 大; that story is told in the chapter that teaches it.

How to remember it

Nothing to invent — two strokes, two legs, a person mid-stride. If you ever forget, stand up and take a step.

In the wild

人法地，地法天，天法道。rén fǎ dì, dì fǎ tiān, tiān fǎ dào"the person takes earth as measure; earth takes heaven; heaven takes the Way" — humanity's place in the chain of things, opened by this character

Laozi 25. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:025:1a · license: attribution.