This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
十
In brief: the world of the ten directions
Common reading
The manuscript gives no common reading for this character, so none is given here.
Design reading
The four directions and the eight directions, with above and below, make up the world of the ten directions. Horizontal level and vertical upright: the Fa has been rectified, forming a perfect world that does not decay. 一 (principle, substance, inner, stillness) crossed with 丨 (manifestation, function, outer, motion) is 十.
A horizontal and a vertical can cross in nine ways: crossing at right angles is 十 (the world of the ten directions); a horizontal crossing a vertical hook blocks a downward fall with the Fa, which is “rectifying the Fa” (as in the readings of 寸 and 扌).
Related characters
About this entry
This entry is taken from the edited manuscript of LI Xutong’s Exploring the Design Mysteries of Chinese Characters. The common reading follows traditional philology, the Shuowen Jiezi and other classics, and modern dictionaries; the design reading recovers the rationale of the character’s formation from the meanings of its strokes, the pairing of yin and yang, and the nine-palace layout, following the New Six Scripts. The premise of the design reading, that the generative mechanism of Chinese characters was designed, is an axiom of this system and differs from the evolutionary account usual in philology; the two readings are kept apart, as surface and depth.