Now Out: 4 Radical Notes and 4 New-Monics

There's been a schedule change this week because a key member of the Joy o' Kanji team lost a close family member. The essay I meant to publish today will instead come out next week. Instead I have posted four Radical Notes, which are free:

• Radical Note 45 on 屮, the “old grass” radical

Find out what 屮 depicts and see how the grass in this radical isn’t actually old! 

• Radical Note 47 on 川, the “river" radical

See why the Japanese need to emphasize that 川 is a “three-stroke river,” and discover what happens when that river is bent out of shape. 

• Radical Note 49 on 己, the “oneself" radical

Find out about a shape-shifting radical with multiple connections to the Heavenly Stems system.

• Radical Note 51 on 干, the “dry" radical

Find out about the radical that is etymologically nowhere to be found in kanji such as 年 (64: year), 平 (388: flat), and 幹 (637: trunk).

Also, Ulrike created the following new-monics:

茎 (1194: stem)
啓 (1197: to enlighten)
蛍 (1200: firefly)
顕 (1224: manifest)