This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
弓
In brief: humble outside, strong inside
Common reading
Pictographic. The oracle-bone form depicts a bow with its back and string; later the string was dropped, leaving only the back, which became the present 弓 after the clerical change. 弓 is one of the radicals, and characters with 弓 mostly relate to bows and arrows. Original sense: a device for shooting arrows or pellets. Shuowen: “弓 is a weapon with which arrows are shot.” Zhengzitong: “弓: wood bent and strung to shoot arrows.” Bent; extended to bending the body and bowing (弓腰, 弓著背).
Design reading
恭 (gōng, “respectful”) sounds like 弓 (gōng): bowing to salute, a person shaped like a drawn bow, is respect. But a drawn bow holds power: one who is respectful to others is strong inside, so the inner meaning of respect is not flattery or servility but a sign of inner strength.
Inside 弓 there are three horizontals, standing for the content of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance; the three horizontals joined show cultivating Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance together, which is cultivating the Great Law. Cultivators of the Great Law are humble and courteous outside and strong inside. The bow was a very powerful weapon in ancient times, so this form is used for the 弓 of bow and arrow, also reminding people to keep a kind heart when using this weapon and to create little karma of killing.
Also explained here: 恭
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.