This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
乃
In brief: a stroke with the attribute of the four images
Common reading
Shuowen Jiezi: “A word drawn out with difficulty; it depicts breath coming out with difficulty.” Shuowen Jiezi Zhu: “A word drawn out with difficulty. Above it there should be the character 者. 曳 has the sense of twisting; drawing out one’s words and turning them, as with 而 and 乃. 乃 is the more difficult drawing-out.” Gongyang Zhuan: “What is 而? Difficulty. What is 乃? Difficulty. Why say 而 sometimes and 乃 sometimes? 乃 is more difficult than 而.”
In modern Chinese, by the analysis of modern grammar, 乃 can serve as almost every kind of word:
you, your (乃母, 乃兄, “your mother”, “your elder brother”; Lu You, “To My Sons”: “At the family sacrifice do not forget to tell your (乃) father.”);
he, his (Rites of Zhou, “Tianguan, Xiaozai”: “Each attend to his (乃) duties.”);
to be (“Failure is (乃) the mother of success”);
then, thereupon (Shiji: “Then (乃) he took leave of his guests and mounted the carriage.”);
but (Hanshu: “But (乃) he grew ever more arrogant.”);
and (Xunzi, “Zhenglun”: “And (乃) it lies in whether one hates it or not.”);
if (Mencius: “If (乃) it is what I wish, it is to learn from Confucius.”);
after all, actually (Liezi: “Can one actually (乃) share the merit of the Creator?”);
only then, for the first time (Book of Rites: “Thunder only then (乃) sounds.”);
a particle (Book of Documents: “Sage indeed, divine indeed, martial indeed, cultured indeed.”).
Design reading
The eight basic strokes discussed earlier are combined with one another mostly by their yin and yang attributes. 𠄎 is a common stroke that also has the attribute of the four images: a horizontal-left-falling stroke joined to a horizontal-left-falling-hook is like a yin-yang laid over another yin-yang, so it is a sign with the attribute of the four images. In modern terms, the four images are a higher-dimensional existence relative to yin and yang; when unfolded in a lower-dimensional space, they fill the whole space. Take 奶 (nǎi, “grandmother; milk”): two generations of female elders, arising from two changes of yin and yang, so it is the woman radical with 乃.
Also explained here: 奶
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.