Sinograph Addenda · Signs

thing

Name	thing
Reads	wù
Means	thing, creature; the things of the world
Taught in	03 · Having and lacking

Where it comes from

The ox 牛 gives the sense and 勿 — a staff with streamers — gives the sound: the classic sound-plus-sense build. Its first job was the motley of an ox’s coat; from “the kinds of cattle” it widened to “kinds,” and from kinds to the word the classics use for any thing at all. Taught in the having-and-lacking chapter.

How to remember it

Your things, counted the oldest way: on the hoof, by their markings.

In the wild

物有本末。wù yǒu běn mò"things have their root and their tip" — every character yours: the root and tip of a tree, taught with 木 itself, here measuring everything that exists

Great Learning (Daxue) — the sentence continues: "affairs have their end and beginning; know what comes first and last, and you are near the Way." urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1d0052:043:1a · license: attribution.