Additional information about 基
說文解字: 【基】，牆始也。从土、其聲。 【居之切】
- Criteria
- BASIS
[ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]
[[COMMON/RARE]]
[DYNAMIC/STATIC]
[GENERAL/SPECIFIC]
1. The basic word is běn 本 "the trunk, the main part" (ant. mò 末 "marginal part") and this word refers to the crucial constituent of something in any sense.
[GENERAL], [STATIC]; [[COMMON]]
2. Duān 端 "beginning" (ant. mò 末 "marginal part") is current in the meaning "initial crucial element, initiating fundamental property", and this is a very philosophial subtle word which conceives of what is crucial as dynamically affecting the rest.
[ABSTRACT], [DYNAMIC]
3. Gēn 根 "the root from which things spring" (ant. miǎo 杪 "small twig") is often used together with běn 本, but can also by itself be used in metaphorical senses, but the word is much rarer than běn 本 in this meaning.
[STATIC]
4. Jī 基 is sometimes used in a literal sense of "foundation on which something rests", but the word is common in figurative senses as in "the solid foundations of the state".
[CONCRETE], [STATIC]
5. Zōng 宗 is ethereal and always abstract, sometimes even purely semantic in meaning.
[ABSTRACT], [STATIC]; [[RARE]]
6. Yīn 因 (ant. guǒ 果 "result") is causal in meaning and emphasises the dynamic causal link between the yīn 因 and whatever is based on it.
[GENERAL], [DYNAMIC]