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Sochin
11th December 2002, 15:43
I understand that Butokukai means the Greater martial arts Virtue organisation but I am wondering if anyone knows the names and meanings of the different radicals of the kanji?

It looks to me that shin (heart) is in it but I'm not sure.

Is there any complete English to kanji dictionary on line? (Now I'm off to Google!)

Later,

TimothyScott
11th December 2002, 23:47
Here are a couple of good sites:

http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

http://dict.regex.info/cgi-bin/j-e/dict

Jeff Hamacher
12th December 2002, 00:11
Originally posted by Sochin
>> I understand that Butokukai means the Greater Martial Arts Virtue organisation but I am wondering if anyone knows the names and meanings of the different radicals of the kanji? <<

if you take a close look at the kanji, a better english translation might be simply "Martial Virtue Association/Organization". the breakdown:

bu is a combination of parts taken to mean "halberd" (hoko) and "foot" (ashi). according to the dictionary i have, the literal sense of the character is "to move forward bravely with a halberd". i've also heard that the "foot" component, since it looks exactly like the character for "stop", should really give the character the meaning "to stop halberds", i.e. to defend oneself, but i've also heard contradictory opinions on that interpretation.

toku is "virtue". the chinese pronunciation in pinyin is te, sounds somewhat similar to "day", and is the concept of virtue found in Taoism, as i understand it. the parts include gyouninben on the left, meaning "to act, move"; the character read sugu, meaning "straight ahead, directly" (the nuance of "correct, proper, honest" is also implied); and as you guessed, the character kokoro, or "heart, spirit", on the bottom. the combination comes out something like, "behaviour or action guided by the correct spirit".

kai, in it's simplest sense, is "group, association, organization".

>> Is there any complete English to kanji dictionary on line? <<

Mr. Scott's suggestions look like good sources.

Harry Cook
12th December 2002, 00:31
Just a comment on the translation of the Chinese "te" (Japanese "toku"). You might find the appendix "On Translating Certain Chinese Philosophical Terms" in Wing-Tsit Chan's A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton University Press 1973 of value. He points out that generally te means "moral character", but in Taoism "it means Tao particularized when inherent in a thing." p790.
Yours,
Harry Cook

Jeff Hamacher
12th December 2002, 00:40
a good point, Mr. Cook, and thank you for the correction of sorts. Alan Watts made the distinction between virtue as "moral rectitude" and virtue as "effectiveness", which is closer to te in Taoism. Watts provided his readers with the example "the healing virtues of a plant" to explain what Taoism meant by the word. does this square with your understanding?

Harry Cook
12th December 2002, 11:52
Yes, that is how I see it.
Yours,
Harry Cook

Sochin
12th December 2002, 15:44
Thanks guys,
this whole topic is so confusing.

I can't identify kai and then kokoro is also shin, etc etc. :)

Sochin
12th December 2002, 19:39
Kokoro is in nin - patience and nin is in nintai - endrance but tai has radicals I can't parse.

anybody again? :)

Jeff Hamacher
13th December 2002, 02:42
you'll love this one, Sochin! the left component of tai is called shikashite and is supposed to represent a long, dangling beard. the right component, sun is supposed to express movement. the combination expresses the notion of long, flexible, unbroken endurance.

Sochin
13th December 2002, 15:27
Thanks Jeff,

that's what I need. The site refs don't load for me very well and then I don't know how to use them very well. :(