Sinograph Addenda · Signs

無without · wú · without, there is not — the classical nothing

without

Where it comes from

A dancer with sleeves full of tassels, borrowed for the word “there is not” — the dance later took itself a new character and left this one holding pure absence. Rank 21, and classical philosophy’s favorite word. Taught in the doing-and-being chapter.

How to remember it

Twelve strokes of costume and no dancer left inside: without. The fullest-looking character in the chapter means nothing at all — and that is how you remember it.

In the wild