Taxonomy of meanings for 監:　　

Additional information about 監

說文解字: 【監】，臨下也。 〔小徐本無「也」。〕 从臥、䘓省聲。 【古銜切】 【𧨭】，古文監从言。

Criteria
• LOOK
  

  1. The current word for looking at something close in general is shì 視, but the word can also occasionally refer specifically to looking down rather than up. (See also SEE.)

  2. Wàng 望 (and the much rarer tiào 眺 / 覜 and zhān 瞻 ) refer to looking at something from a distance (often with connotations of admiration), and the connoted direction is always upwards.

  3. Pàn 盼 refers to looking around with the expectation of finding something.

  4. Jiān 監 refers to looking at something so as to ascertain something about it or on the basis of it.

  5. Gù 顧 adds to the notion of looking at something the turning of one's head, or one's attention, from something to what is being looked at. Juàn 眷 is intensitive for gù 顧.

  6. Dǔ 睹 / 者 plus 見 on-right adds to the notion of looking at something the connotation of intense pleasure and typically the hope of establishing personal or erotic contract with the person one looks at by looking at her.

  7. Dì 睇 and lài 睞 are rare words referring to a flirtatious quick glance.

  8. Nì 睨 and miǎn 眄 refers to looking at someone sidewise as a show of demonstrative disrespect.

  9. Yáng 仰 (ant. fǔ 俯 "look down") refers to throwing one's head back and look up. See LOOK UP

• MIRROR
  

  1. The current general word for a mirror is jìng 鏡. [The word is known since the Warring States. Mirrors for the first time appeared in Central China in Shang times, but became no common prior to the Warring States period. Ancient Chinese mirrors were made of bronze, they were of round shape with a button in the centre to hang it up, and their one side was richly decorated.

  2. Jiàn 鑒 originally referred to a sheet of copper placed under water to obtain a mirroring effect, but from Warring States times onwards the word came to be used as synonymous with jìng 鏡. [Note that the original character was jiān 監. I have not found evidence that it referred to a copper sheet, but the term refers also to the bronze water basin which could be used like a mirror. It is supported by the form of the character, which represents a man looking at the vessel. In ZUO the term already refers to a bronze mirror, and since the Warring States, the word came to be used together with jìng 鏡.

• ASSESS
  

  [DEFINITIVE/TENTATIVE]

  [FIGURATIVE/LITERAL]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [PRECISE/VAGUE]

  [PROSPECTIVE/RETROSPECTIVE]

  1. Jì 計 refers to assessing something by a process of literal or figurative "precise calculation", and this is perhaps the most general word in this field.

  [GENERAL], [PRECISE]

  2. Liào 料 refers to a tentative and approximative subjective assessment, typically of probabilities.

  [APPROXIMATIVE], [PROSPECTIVE], [TENTATIVE]

  3. Cè 測 are to assess roughly or approximately, typically probabilities of the future, but also current matters.

  [VAGUE], [TENTATIVE]

  4. Lùn 論 focusses on the judgment passed explicitly by way of explicit assessment, and the word often has a theoretical or juridical flavour.

  [DEFINITIVE], [EXPLICIT]

  5. Liáng 量 refers very often literally to measuring physical dimensions of any kind, but can also be used figuratively to mean "fathom, imagine fully the size of something".

  [LITERAL!]

  6. Duó 度 is often more abstract in nuance and expresses something in the direction of a conclusive opinion about the matter assessed. Thus this meaning of duó 度 is close to the related meaning "reckon that, consider that".

  [FIGURATIVE]; [[RARE]], [[MARGINAL]]

  7. Chéng 程 is to apply an administrative standard in the bureaucratic assessment of something.

  [DEFINITIVE], [OFFICIAL], [PRECISE]

  8. Jiān 監 is to assess continuously through surveillence and the like, often through the intermediary of others.

  [LASTING], [OFFICIAL], [VAGUE]

  9. Chēng 稱 is primarily to assess the weight of something. See WEIGH.

  10. Xiàng 相 is specifically to assess the basic inner true qualities of something on the basis of external features, as in physiognomy or the art of assessing the true quality horses by heir appearance.

  [DEFINITIVE], [PRECISE], [SPECIFIC]

• INSPECT
  

  1. The general word for inspection are jiān 監 "survey and inspect by higher orders" and guān 觀 which refers very generally to surveying anything, and not necessarily by order of anyone else, but usually in great detail.

  2. Dū 督 is also very common but strictly limited to bureaucratic contexts.

  3. Xún 巡 adds to the notion of bureaucratic inspection that of official travel in order to carry out the inspection involved.