經

jīng

classic works; pass through; warp thread

Meaning

  • Traversal and Endurance: To pass through, traverse, or follow a prescribed route; to endure, last, survive, or undergo a specific state or process.
  • Authority and Standards: A rule, law, guiding principle, or the structural "backbone" of a system; an authoritative text or classic work.
  • Medical/Anatomical: The meridians (channels) of the body through which qi flows.
  • Governance: To manage, govern, or arrange.

Grammar and usage

  • Use is typically determined by the object or complement: location markers generally indicate physical traversal, while duration or hardship markers suggest endurance or undergoing.

Distinctions

  • 經 vs. 緯 (Warp vs. Weft): Together these represent a complete grid (latitude and longitude). Philosophically, 經 denotes the constant or principle, while 緯 represents the application or variable.

History and forms

  • Readings: Tang-period reading *geng.
  • Variants: Semantic variant U+26007; simplified variant U+7ECF (经).

Graphical notes

  • The glyph is based on the image of warp threads (vertical threads) on a loom, serving as the conceptual basis for the "constant line" across physical, temporal, and normative dimensions.

Translator notes

  • Textual Authority: When encountering references to canonical works, distinguish between a reference to a specific physical volume (such as a Buddhist sutra or Confucian classic) and a description of the information's unchanging nature.
  • Buddhist Context: The use of this glyph for "sutra" was a deliberate choice based on the Sanskrit //sutra//, which also means "thread."

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.