Chinese Etymology 東 "East; master, host"

Greetings scholars! Expressing abstract concepts like cardinal directions is always a bit of a pickle in logographic systems, so let's have a look at how Chinese tackled this problem, starting with today's character 東 "East; master, host".
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Music Used: Purple Bamboo tune - Chinese Classical Folk Music
Sunset Ceremony - Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom
San Xuan - ERotMK
Journey of the Gu Qin - ERotMK
Jackdaws Playing on Water - Chinese Classical Folk Music
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:33 Etymology
2:30 Variant Characters
3:15 Writing Tips
4:45 Outro

[@lyuktentiok]

Hanzi without variations exists The Chu: "And I took that personally."

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Lol! It certainly feels like that sometimes doesn't it? I wasn't lying a few episodes back when I said everyone in the rest of Warring States China thought the Chu were an odd sort. This was probably more due to their fusion of indeginous shamanistic beliefs with Western Zhou court culture but I bet their wonky-ass characters didn't help things xD

[@Myurridthaekish]

A general writing tips video would be "poggers"

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Good to know! I can't promise anything too soon because I have a few other projects in the works but I can definately whip one up!

[@OmegaTaishu]

I may be in the minority here, but I really prefer the blocky variation of these characters The computerised 東 just looks way cooler than any of its cursive variations imho Thanks for the amazing vid as always

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Hahaha, that's fine! I admit I play stuff up a bit for the drama (I'm a big fan of the very blocky-looking KaiTi characters myself), but I'm glad you liked the video all the same!

[@Orthodox_American]

Good stuff as always. I love that you include how to write it in multiple ways instead of the textbook style a lot of channels present

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Thank you! It's just kinda sad whenever you see people writing absolutely chickenscratch characters you know? And while I understand that learning calligraphy is a commitment not many are willing to make, I myself found that writing "calligraphically" with a regular pen made such a huge difference. Also, textbooks assume everyone is an idiot, I assume everyone is a scholar =P

[@jogloran]

Your presentation of the research is amazing. Seeing your new videos, I know I’m in for a treat.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Awesome, thank you!

[@Dionaea_floridensis]

Surprised by the Thanksgiving reference given that you're swedish

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

Well, I grew up watching cartoons from the US and Japan, so I'll be referencing both those cultures quite a lot, not many people would get a joke about fika or surströmming after all! xD

[@justaregularslitherwing]

I know this isn't entomologyically correct for 东 but how I like to remember this character is that since a bag could represent a traveler (since obviously travelers back in the ancient times are seen most of the time carrying bags), I think that the direction east is the most common direction when traveling around somewhere if you don't have a compass. So from there, I guess the way I memorize 东 while sticking to it's etymology for my mnemonic is that east is the most common direction travelers head for when bringing goods on feet. :P Now again, this isn't really etymologicaly correct and I know that this character only got the meaning east by sound loan but, it's just a silly mnemonic I use to remember 东 since I know it's etymology lol

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

As mnemonics go it's not a bad one lol. I always had an easier time remembering characters once I figured out the logic behind them myself, but whatever makes the learning easier amirite? My main gripe with folk etymology is many teachers who know nothing of Chinese character etymology will come up with absolute nonsense explanations in an attempt to help their students memorize the characters but have too fragile of an ego to tell their students that they actually have no clue what the actual explanation is. Also, here's a mnemonic for ya! 東東動東量重 "(The) Eastern master moves (the) bag (to) weigh (its) weight" xD

[@justaregularslitherwing]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd I agree with you on that. Literally just from studying the etymology of a character, it's literally easy to remember it for me since I can just keep in note that this character originally looked like or was composed of this lol. I think a notable example of a folk etymology I can think of is 我. You don't know how insane I will go if anyone explains this as a hand holding a weapon when in reality it's a forked weapon hehehehehe. Also, that's a pretty good mnemonic for memorizing characters that have 東 in them :p

[@mohammadazad8350]

In Japanese 東 is ひがし (hi-ga-shi) so no jokes to be made :). Also, I have to disagree with 4:03; disconnecting connected strokes is disgusting (and confusing).

[@sovietwizard1620]

just a question, do you speak 文言文 since I see in some of the videos you use many 文言文 references, but it doesn't seem like you actually know what it means ... im not saying its bad, but your definetely mixing some 文言文 and modern chinese to create examples

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

I speak Mandarin and (a smidge of) Cantonese. I don't speak 文言文, and no-one ever did, because 文言文 is a literary language, modeled on Old Chinese (which is the language that Zhuangzi and Kongzi and Mozi would have spoken), and was only ever read out loud in the speaker's native dialact or language. The May 4th-ers and commies had some strange ideas about language but even today, spoken Chinese is full of classical expressions (esp. if the talking is happening at a formal occasion with an educated audience), and the written language even moreso so I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say I'm 'mixing' 文言文 into modern Chinese because that's always been a thing. It'd be like saying someone was 'mixing' Latin into English if they used the expression "carpe diem" or the word "saturday" xD

[@sovietwizard1620]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd As people who speak chinese, I can tell you most Chinese people can understand 文言文. But few can write, and amend. I am a few who is fully literate. I have studied Classical Chinese intensily, and from my experiyense, some words are not used anymore, or are only used in writing, but some you just say as spoken for example 本公司 isn't used as spoken. And in fact, if you even wanted to write it like that, you wouldn't use 公司 since it doesn't fit that kind of formality. 企業 would better fit

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

That's strange, because I have heard 本國，本科，本公司，and 本人 all used in spoken Northern Mandarin.

[@sovietwizard1620]

@@SwedishSinologyNerd they are used, but the other words are fixed words, so it makes sense why they are used. And I highly doubt 本科 etymology derives from 本 meaning "oneself's", rather 本 meaning "root/original", so "undergraduate course". 本公司 is a fixed word, but it's not used in they way you interpreted it, maybe I wasn't clear when I said that.

[@SwedishSinologyNerd]

@@sovietwizard1620 本科 means either “undergrad course” or “our department”, and I’ve personally seen both meanings used both orally and in writing. Same with 本公司