This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
干
In brief: the Fa is the world's best shield
Common reading
Now the simplified form of 乾 and 幹 (variant 榦). Pictographic. The oracle-bone form depicts a fork-like hunting tool or weapon, used first for attack and later for defence. Original sense: shield. Fangyan 9: “The shield is called 干 east of the passes.” Shuowen: “干 means to offend.” Erya, “Shiyan”: “干 means to seek.” Turning shields and spears (干戈) into jade and silk.
Design reading
A horizontal with a 十 below it. The Great Law is the best protection for people, the world and the universe: the existence of the Fa is the best shield for the world.
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.