This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
士
In brief: close to the way of heaven, carrying the Dao with great virtue
Common reading
Shuowen: “士 means service.” Baihutong, “Ranks”: “One who comprehends past and present and can tell right from wrong is called 士.” Hanshu, “Treatise on Food and Money”: “One who holds a position through learning is called 士.” Hou Hanshu, “Biography of Zhongchang Tong”: “One employed for talent and wisdom is called 士.” Zhoushu: “Prince Jin, grown to manhood, able to manage superior offices, is called 士.”
Design reading
The upper horizontal is long, showing that the person is close to the way of heaven; one close to the way of heaven carries the Dao with great virtue: that is the 士 of great virtue.
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.