No regrets: about hui 悔

[Harmen]

The character hui 悔 appears many times in the Zhouyi, the core text of the Book of Changes, and is often translated as 'regret'. A student asked me if I could tell a little bit more about this character, and although I already examined this character several times, new findings came up. 

Only watch this if you are really interested in the etymology of Chinese characters, otherwise it can be a bit boring to watch.

 

 

[Nintendao]

Nice. Overall I ended up with this impression of 悔 as being like having to get lectured by your mother over something. 
Another funny thing was after the part about 每 depicting a woman with a fancy hairdo, I just imagined someone getting one of those tattoos of like a geisha, and later regretting it. Originally the top part (the hairpin) was a 屮 or 艸, maybe indicating something is numerous like blades of grass. That seems fitting with the idea of replacing regret with re-strategizing. Going back over all the little sprouts to see what might best take root. Actually I guess it works either way. Something about counting all the hairs on your head..

[Harmen]

17 minutes ago, Nintendao said:

Overall I ended up with this impression of 悔 as being like having to get lectured by your mother over something.

 

[Michael Sternbach]

1 hour ago, Nintendao said:

Nice. Overall I ended up with this impression of 悔 as being like having to get lectured by your mother over something. 
Another funny thing was after the part about 每 depicting a woman with a fancy hairdo, I just imagined someone getting one of those tattoos of like a geisha, and later regretting it. Originally the top part (the hairpin) was a 屮 or 艸, maybe indicating something is numerous like blades of grass. That seems fitting with the idea of replacing regret with re-strategizing. Going back over all the little sprouts to see what might best take root. Actually I guess it works either way. Something about counting all the hairs on your head..