This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
又
In brief: changes of the Dao unfolding again and again
Common reading
Shuowen: “又 means hand; pictographic.” Duan Yucai’s note: “This is today’s 右 (right).” Book of Songs, “Xiaoya, Xiaowan”: “Heaven’s mandate does not come again (又).”
Design reading
The horizontal above signifies the Dao, and the crossing of yin and yang below signifies change; the horizontal joined to the left-falling stroke is change related to the Dao. The many changes of the Dao unfolding through repetition after repetition: that is 又, “again”.
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.