Group 巳 (sì)

Just some comments to 异(F異) [yì] different:

You write "Meaning: to raise, to stop": that seems to be wrong IMHO.

In fact to understand this character, one has to understand its traditional form:
It's a picture of a 異 "strange, unusual" person with the mask on the 田 "head" and two (=共 "shared") great hands.
See in German: click.

To go one step further:
To understand 翼 [yì] wing, which is NOT simplified (why?), you must understand the long form 異 to understand 翼: 
The 異 unusual 羽 feathers of a bird serve to fly: the 翼 wings.
See in German: click.

And another one: 異 is also a component in 戴 [dài] to put on. How can you understand this one without knowing 異?

Conclusion: To understand to full beauty of chinese characters - simpl. AND trad. - one first has to understand its traditional forms.

Hi henning and hape,

Exactly speaking, “异” actually has, or had, the meaning “raise, to stop”, although this character is not used in this sense anymore in modern Chinese.

“异” happens to be the simplified form of “異”, but confusingly and surprisingly, you can see both 异 and 異 separately in 说文解字 published in 100 A.D., where 异 is defined as “举也” (raise), and 異 as “分也” (separate). In short, 异 and 異 are two different characters.

Of course 康熙字典 (1716) also lists 异, and its meaning is defined as “停住” (stop). And therefore, you can say the definition of 异 presented by henning, “raise, to stop”, is partly correct. The problem is he forgot to mention the meaning of 异 as the simplified form of 異.

By the way, henning, I don’t understand why Chinese-perakun only gives such a “geeky and musty” definition for 异! Anyway, be careful when you use the add-on tool next time. Chinese-perakun is very useful, but it often makes mistakes, especially in displaying pinyin.  

Hi hape,

first of all thanks a lot for the additional comments. Much appreciated! Why not join the group?

Regarding the 异 (異) - actually the simplified 异 is an adopted old character (which e.g. be found in the 康熙字典) with the meaning "to raise, to stop" that is still noted down in some dictionaries, including many versions of the CEDICT (obviously has been dumped in the newest one).

This is also how to interpret the line:

to raise, to stop (异); different, unusual, strange (異)

I admit that I should have better spared that version - it obviously is now soley used as a simplified 異 in the sense of "different, unusual, strange".

I also agree that the group building is more systematical and complete with traditional characters - especially as rarer characters never got a simplified counterpart. This will show e.g. in the later 卢 / 盧 group.

Please note, however, that it has not been my goal to build a classification scheme for characters - I do not at all intend to compete with zhongwen.com. I am content when I succeed in separating more or less coherent learning blocks. I also do not plan to include information on the possibly intended picture (here: "hands making offering" according to zhongwen.com) as this did not really help me so far in my learning progress. Phonetic/structural groups had the highest memory impact.

However, feel free to add information - and links to your site whereever you think they are suitable are warmly welcomed also.

changye,

you have been quicker again!

Actually, at the time I compiled this group (Jan of this year) I didn't use perakun but CEDICT - which has been included in perakun and the old CPod-Dictionary!

康熙字典 and 说文解字 entries are also provided at zdict.net. I am utterly facinated by that über-resource.