I'm having a problem with this one - the meaning of the fourth word in the first line is so variable in different translations, that I'm wondering if it's actually a different word.

Some translations favor an idea of 'bondmaid' or 'servant' or something similar. Other translations favor an attitude or approach in the area of 'expectation, awaiting, patience'.

Is it in fact the same word that's being translated so variously?

Hi Dobro
It's the same character, three very different meanings in three different contexts in the Yi.
It means beard or whiskers at 22.2
Bondmaid, waiting maid or servant girl at 54.3
Necessity, patience, waiting or essential at 05.T
It can also mean "a moment" and "elder sister"
b

Marrying as a concubine is a compromise with dignity, but dignity runs a distant second to survival. One needs no reproach for this because quiet virtue will eventually be recognized, and the lowly station of concubine may be elevated and even become esteemed within the household.

Hi Brad -

"It's the same character, three very different meanings in three different contexts in the Yi.
It means beard or whiskers at 22.2
Bondmaid, waiting maid or servant girl at 54.3
Necessity, patience, waiting or essential at 05.T
It can also mean "a moment" and "elder sister"

Okay, this opens a door for me, one I've been looking for for a few years. How do you know it has those different meanings in those different lines? These days, I'm using 'beard' for the meaning in 22.2 as well, but a beard sure doesn't fit in 54.3. How can the same word have different meanings? Is it like 'bear' and 'bear' in English? And if the same word has different meanings, how do you know which one it is? From the context?

'How does a bear bear hot weather?'

Dobro

Many ancient languages are very metaphorical. This is especially true with ancient chinese. This is why it is so difficult for even the Chinese to translate the ancient languages. Many of the words, if not most, have a range of meanings. This was intentional. It could convey one meaning to those in the know and another to others. The ancient Tai Classics have been translated many times. But nobody knows all the aspects of them, it is purposely kept secret from the eyes of the unready and unworthy. "When the student is ready, the master appears." In the west we think a is not non a, truth is not nontruth. This is because we think very linearly, for the ancient chinese, and the Hebrew language too, as well as others, this is not true. Much is expressed in few words.

Gene

Hi Dobro
It's also good to remember that old Chinese only had about 8,000 words, where a language like English might have 200,000. There has to be a piling on of meanings. Modern Chinese had to go to multi syllable or multi character words to expand these limits.
And more than any other language, all of these optional meanings are narrowed down only by their contexts. Context also drives parts of speech, and most ideograms (except really concrete nouns like dragon and tiger) can serve as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
BTW, the phenomenon of multiple meanings is called polysemy, and you might have picked the Yi's most interesting example in Xu1.
You can often tell which was the original meaning of a Chinese word by looking at its radical (a main component of the graphic), but in this case radical 181, ye, a leaf or a page, doesn't give much of a clue.

b

The oldest meaning was 'a rectangular container with cover for cooked grain or hot food. Also called xu-gui, used since start of Western Zhou'. Later the picture looks like a head with hairs, but probably two different characters became one. The component 'hair', 3 little strokes, were originally the beats of a drum-stick. Jong was a special sacrifice, consisting of beating the drum.

It is possible to translate it everywhere as 'waiting', makes sense for all instances.
22.2 "Adorn your waiting(-spell)": turn waiting into a good thing in itself, instead of getting impatient. This line changes to a car losing the axle-strap: becoming immobile. Everyone knows the irritation of a flat tire.
54.3 "The marrying maiden waits, returns and marries as secondary wife", changes to 34.3, about the noble one being like a net: waiting for the fish to swim in by itself, instead of using force.
5 Im.T: needing (or waiting for the rain to stop) means waiting.

About the radical: many characters orginally had no radical at all, the same character included many meanings. Later, with the help of radicals, they got specified. So the radical does indeed give a special aspect of the meaning, but the 'main' part, the original, gives the 'sense'.

LiSe

Gene - okay, fair enough, and easy enough to accept if we're operating with the Chinese text. But I'm working it into an English version, so I'm struggling to get the best approximation in this linear language that I can. It doesn't work very well if I say:

Marrying maiden using patience/expecting/beard

I've got to make a choice. Up until now, I've been trying to stick to the 'one word, one meaning' approach. That's okay most of the time, but it just doesn't work all of the time.

Hi Brad - "And more than any other language, all of these optional meanings are narrowed down only by their contexts. Context also drives parts of speech, and most ideograms (except really concrete nouns like dragon and tiger) can serve as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs."

So, I can't 'tiger my lunch'? lol

Okay, it's context that I've been using most often when I make my choice of meanings - that's why I chose 'beard' for 22.2 - it's more along the lines of adornment than 'awaiting', plus it follows along nicely from 22.1 'adorning one's feet'.

Really useful responses from you - thanks.

"BTW, the phenomenon of multiple meanings is called polysemy"

As in: "54.3 is an unusually apt example of the problematic polysemy regularly encountered in the Yi"? lol

'polysemytic puzzling out of meanings' lol

"You can often tell which was the original meaning of a Chinese word by looking at its radical"

Yeah, that's useful for teasing out the original meaning, but it still doesn't help as much in deciding the particular meaning of a polysemytic term as does context, right?

LiSe - hi.

"It is possible to translate it everywhere as 'waiting', makes sense for all instances.
22.2 "Adorn your waiting(-spell)": turn waiting into a good thing in itself, instead of getting impatient."

Yes, that makes sense. The reason I've favored 'beard' is in my post to Brad above.

"This line changes to a car losing the axle-strap: becoming immobile. Everyone knows the irritation of a flat tire."

I've got a question about this, but I'm going to start a new thread. I'd value your input.

"54.3 "The marrying maiden waits, returns and marries as secondary wife", changes to 34.3, about the noble one being like a net: waiting for the fish to swim in by itself, instead of using force."

Yeah, I see the appropriacy of that version too. But I also see how 'marrying maiden as handmaid, reverses and marries as concubine' works equally well.

I can see both sides of it, both sides seem to work, both sides have merit. Which to choose?

I said the 'main' or original part gave a character its sense (a kind of general direction of the meaning), and for the Yi that works fairly well. But for modern Chinese it does not. For many characters they borrowed another one just for the sound. It is called a phonetic compound, and it has usually only a slight connection with the meaning, but quite often not at all. In that case the radical is the only clue.

About the handmaid: it certainly makes a lot of sense. But as far as I know, handmaid is not at all a common meaning. I think it depends in which text it is used as such. I will try to find some more information.

LiSe

Marrying maiden/expecting/beard....?

Does this indicate an older age, therefore, the amount of patience (and humor, no doubt)? Women sometimes grow facial hair as hormonal/aging process affect the body....

clueless but kicking.