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33 sats \ 7 replies \ @siggy47 6 Aug \ on: Learn Chinese with Sensei #2: 自由人 ideasfromtheedge
Great choice of material today. My western brain tried to look at those characters to find some symbolic manifestation of freedom. No luck, unless you see it as a box with a guy climbing out of the top and breaking free? Doesn't quite work.
I may be wrong, this is the way I always imagined it. Maybe Sensei can fact check the etymology.
田 +丨= 由 (field - enter and leave)
自 + 由 + 人 = self (not sure the etymology) + reason (own reason to do things) + person
A person with own reasons for doing things is free.
ps: the field is an aerial view.
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自 + 由 + 人 = self (not sure the etymology) + reason (own reason to do things) + person
You are spot on with the meaning break down. 自由 has a literal meaning of "self reason". And a person who do things for "self reason" is free.
田 +丨= 由 (field - enter and leave)
It's doesn't have anything to do with entering and leaving the field. 由 existed way back.
And it did not resemble 田.
Nice reasoning though.
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Yeah, I tried to make that clear (but perhaps I did not) when I said the way I 'imagined' it which is useful as a strategy to employ, particularly as a second language learner.
The book I started learning Mandarin with [Tuttle] emphasizes this approach and I believe if you look at modern dictionaries today, the character does utilize those components from the 'field' radicle.
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Thank you for the breakdown! :)
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That's really helpful, thanks.
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