Sinograph Addenda · Signs

who

Name	who
Reads	zhě
Means	the one who — turns a verb into its doer
Taught in	09 · The master's opening

Where it comes from

What the graph once drew is disputed, and this course says so. Its classical work is beyond dispute: rank 10, the particle that turns any verb into its doer — 知者 the one who knows, 仁者 the humane one. Taught in the master’s-opening chapter.

How to remember it

Hang 者 after a verb and a person appears: the one who does it. The character is a job title generator.

In the wild

知者樂水，仁者樂山。zhī zhě yào shuǐ, rén zhě yào shān"the one who knows delights in water; the humane one delights in mountains" — 者 framing both halves

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