Character Points - Group 彖 (tuàn)

Hi henning,

I’m a little shocked to learn that 彖 means a hog. You know, 彖 is the lower part of such an important character 篆 (seal script)！In my ancient Chinese dictionaries, the original meaning of 彖 is defined as ‘a running hog’, and its secondary meaning is ‘judge or determine’, but I don’t know why ‘a running hog’ changed into ‘judge’. Did ancient Chinese people play a hog-racing? Anyway, the character 篆 (seal script) was invented by combining 彖 with 竹 (bamboo) probably because a writing brush is traditionally made of bamboo and animal hair ………………… including hog hair? 

Hi changye,

I now also found the additional meaning for 彖:

"writings on the implication of divinatory symbols in “The Book of Changes”;commentary on meaning of diagrams in the Classic of Changes"

Source: http://dict.iciba.com/

Hi henning,

Thanks! Actually, I also found the same thing in my dictionaries last night, but ........let me confess, I just couldn't translate the definition into English, and that's is why I didn't mention it in my previous posting!....hehe! The online dictionary is very good! I've bookmarked it.

When I was in Turkey, I had a traditional shave, and the barber used a hog-hair brush. :D