Sinograph Addenda · Signs

water

Name	water
Reads	shuǐ
Means	water; a river
Taught in	02 · The world in pictures

Where it comes from

A stream in mid-current: the long center line is the flow, the strokes beside it the eddies. Squeezed to the side of a character it becomes the three quick drops 氵 — the shape-change taught with 沐. Taught in the pictures chapter.

How to remember it

Water running fast enough to braid — the middle stroke is the current, the side strokes the spray.

In the wild

知者樂水，仁者樂山。zhī zhě yào shuǐ, rén zhě yào shān"the wise delight in water; the humane delight in mountains" — water for the wise because they are like it: quick, adaptive, always moving; the mountain half belongs to the steady

Analects 6.23. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:006:30a · license: attribution.