This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
广
In brief: a hut where people can live
Common reading
Now the simplified form of 廣. 广 (ān) was originally the same as 庵, a thatched hut (Gui Fu, Qing, Shuowen Jiezi Yizheng, 广 section: “I hold that 广 is the character 庵; clerical writers found it too empty and added 奄.”). 广 (yǎn): a house built against a cliff. Shuowen, 广 section: “广: a house built on a cliff; it depicts a tall house facing outward.” A roof ridge: Gujin Yunhui Juyao, Yan rhyme: “广: the Zengyun says: ‘The head of the ridge-pole is called 广.’”
Design reading
A dot added on top of 厂 shows that the function and meaning of 厂 is that people can live in it, that is, 庵, a thatched hut.
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.