Sinograph Addenda · Signs

upright

Name	upright
Reads	zhèng
Means	upright, correct; exactly
Taught in	08 · Stopping at true

Where it comes from

The foot 止 stopped at the line 一: arriving exactly where one should. “Upright, correct” — and, adverbially, “exactly.” Rank 87, and the moral vocabulary’s favorite character. Taught in the stopping-at-true chapter.

How to remember it

Toe the line and you are upright — the character is a posture and a principle in five strokes.

In the wild

名不正，則言不順。míng bù zhèng, zé yán bù shùn"if names are not upright, speech does not flow" — set the names straight or nothing downstream works; 正 at the hinge of the rectification of names

Analects 13.3. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:013:7a · license: attribution.