感 | gǎn

In Mandarin Chinese, 感 (Pinyin: gǎn 🔊) is a word of many meanings. As a verb, it can stand for “to feel”, “to perceive”; “to affect”, “to move”, “to touch”; “be affected by”, “be sensitive to”; “be grateful”, “to thank”; “to long for”, “to miss”, “to be sentimental”, “to sigh with emotion”. As a noun, it can mean “emotion”, “feeling”, “sensation”, “sense” or “thought”.

According to Wiktionary, 感 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 咸 and semantic 心, “heart-mind”. Remembering that 心 includes both heart and mind, it’s not difficult to see why Chinese can use the same word 感 for both “emotion” and “thought”.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

咸 (shut) + 心 heart/emotions → emotion/feeling that shuts off sensation (= moves/affects one to the point of muteness or immobility).

However, 咸 really means “all”, “completely”, “together” or “united”. Could the whole combination be “to feel with all heart”?

感 is a simplified form of a traditional character 感. There is a subtle difference between these two. In the traditional 感, the “heart” 心 is drawn inside of the 咸 component, directly below the 口. In the simplified 感, the 心 is placed below the whole 咸 bit.

感 are often combined with other hanzi containing 心 (or its radical form, 忄), for example:

• 感 + 想 = 感想 (gǎnxiǎng 🔊): impressions, reflections, thoughts; to miss, to reminisce, to think of, to yearn for
• 感 + 念 = 感念 (gǎnniàn): to recall fondly; to recall sadly
• 快 + 感 = 快感 (kuàigǎn): delight, joy, pleasant feeling, pleasure, thrill

Some more compounds of 感:

• 感 + 激 = 感激 (gǎnjī 🔊): to be grateful
• 感 + 人 = 感人 (gǎnrén): heart-warming, moving, touching
• 白 + 感 = 百感 (bǎigǎn): all kinds of feelings and emotions
• 好 + 感 = 好感 (hǎogǎn): good feeling; goodwill; favour
• 口 + 感 = 口感 (kǒugǎn): mouthfeel, taste
• 手 + 感 = 手感 (shǒugǎn): feel, touch
• 美 + 感 = 美感 (měigǎn): sense of beauty
• 音 + 感 = 音感 (yīngǎn): sense of rhythm, pitch, sound, tone quality, etc.

Now for a bit of poetry. Chunwang (春望) is recognised as one of the “best and best-known works” by the Tang dynasty poet Du Fu (杜甫, 712—770). The poem is notoriously difficult to translate. With 春 (chūn) meaning “spring” and 望 (wàng) “to observe”, “to watch”, “to hope”, the title of the poem has been variously rendered as “Spring View”, “Spring Scene”, “Spring Gaze”, “Spring Outlook”, “Spring Prospect”, “Spring Hope” and so on. I like the translation by Vikram Seth, although the name he gave it, Spring Scene in Time of War, conveys more information than needed.

春望 (simplified) 国破山河在 城春草木深 感时花溅泪 恨别鸟惊心 烽火连三月 家书抵万金 白头搔更短 浑欲不胜簪	春望 (traditional) 國破山河在 城春草木深 感時花濺淚 恨別鳥驚心 烽火連三月 家書抵萬金 白頭搔更短 渾欲不勝簪
杜甫

Spring Scene in Time of War The state lies ruined; hills and streams survive. Spring in the city; grass and leaves now thrive. Moved by the times, the flowers shed their dew. The birds seem startled; they hate parting too. The steady beacon fires are three months old. A word from home is worth a ton of gold. I scratch my white hair which is grown so thin It soon won’t let me stick my hat pin in. Du Fu (Translated by Vikram Seth)

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忆 | yì

In Mandarin Chinese, 忆 (Pinyin: yì 🔊) is a verb “to remember”, “to reminisce”, “to reflect upon” or a noun for “memory”.

忆 is a simplified form of the traditional character 憶. According to Wiktionary, 憶 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 忄, a radical form of 心 “heart”, and phonetic 意 (Pinyin: yì) which also contains 心. So we can say that there are two hearts in 憶. In the simplified form, 意 got replaced by unrelated but similarly-sounding 乙 (yǐ). You may remember that the same story happened with 亿 (← 億).

Compounds of 忆 include

• 回 “to return” + 忆 = 回忆 (huíyì 🔊): memory, to remember
• 失 “to lose” + 忆 = 失忆 (shīyì): to lose memory
• 记 “to record” + 忆 = 记忆 (jìyì 🔊): to remember, to recall
• 记忆 + 力 “strength” = 记忆力 (jìyìlì): ability to remember; memory

In Japanese, 憶 could be rendered as either おく (oku) or おもう (omou 🔊).

夏燕 谷ゆけり記憶 散りゆけり 金子 natsu tsubame tani yukeri kioku chiri yukeri a summer swallow flies through the valley  — memories scatter Kaneko *

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*	Kaneko Tohta, Selected Haiku, Part 2: 1961—2012. Red Moon Press, 2012, p. 63.

快 | kuài

In Mandarin Chinese, 快 (Pinyin: kuài 🔊) is an adjective with many meanings: “fast”, “quick”, “sharp”, “clever”, “frank”, “straightforward”, “pleased”, “happy”. It is also used as an adverb meaning “soon” or “almost”.

According to Wiktionary, 快 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 夬 (guài) and semantic 忄, a radical form of 心, “heart/mind”.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

As per 夬 (scoop out) + 心 heart/emotions → pleasant; comfortable (← heart with all the unpleasantness scooped out of it) → refreshing; enjoyable.

Compounds of 夬 include

• 快 + 人 = 快人 (kuàirén): a frank and open person
• 快 + 门 = 快门 (kuàimén): shutter (of a camera)
• 手 + 快 = 手快 (shǒukuài): fast; having quick hands
• 飞 + 快 = 飞快 (fēikuài): 1) razor sharp; 2) extremely fast, at lightning speed
• 大 + 快 + 人 + 心 = 大快人心 (dàkuàirénxīn): to everybody’s satisfaction

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心 | xīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 心 (Pinyin: xīn 🔊) has a number of meanings, all of which are ultimately derived from “heart”. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

A depiction of a slender object encompassed in the heart of another object → mind; breast; center; core; thought; consideration; meaning; taste; spirit; sincerity; emotion; feelings.

In my opinion, this description (of “a slender object”) suits better to one of its radical forms, ⺖, rather than to 心 itself.

I think that 心 is much better representation of human heart than the Western symbol ♥ which does not look like heart at all. Uncle Hanzi says that 心 is “the human torso showing breasts, stomach and navel, now meaning heart”, many historical forms of this character appear to show completely different human organ. In any case, it turns out that 心 on its own refers not to anatomical heart — that would be 心脏 (xīnzàng 🔊) — but to “heart-mind”. Allow me to explain.

Western popular culture (including popular philosophy and popular psychology) tends to differentiate between “heart” (i.e. emotions) and “mind” (i.e. thought) for no good reason. This contrasts with concepts of heart-mind typical for Oriental cultures, such as Sanskrit चित्त (citta). On purely physiological level, we feel emotions with our brain, not heart; it could be that in the East they knew it all along for thousands of years.

In Japanese, 心 is pronounced kokoro (🔊).

百なりや 蔓一筋の 心より 千代 Hyaku nari ya tsuru hitosuji no kokoro yori A hundred different gourds, From the mind Of one vine. Chiyo-ni

It is said that Chiyo, the most famous of women haiku writers, was asked by the Zen Master of Eiheiji Temple to illustrate in a haiku the teaching that a thousand meanings come from one thought. The above verse is the parabolic expression of this Zen principle (which is that of Mahayana Buddhism).

R.H. Blyth, Haiku vol. 4, Autumn—Winter

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