Taxonomy of meanings for 私:　　

Additional information about 私

說文解字: 【私】，禾也。从禾、厶聲。北道名禾主人曰私主人。 【息夷切】

Criteria
• SELFISH
  

  1. The standard word for selfishness in classical Chinese is sī 私.

• EGOTISM
  

  私

• SECRET
  

  1. The current general word for something being kept secret from the general public, but it remaining accessible to an inner circle, is mì 密 (ant. míng 明 "openly, for everyone to see").

  2. Yǐn 隱 (ant. xiǎn 顯 "manifestly, demonstratively") refers primarily to hiding something or being hidden from everyone except the person who is hiding it.

  3. Yīn 陰 (ant. míng 明 "openly, for everyone to see") refers to covert actions hidden from a certain person group.

  4. Tōu 偷 (ant. zhèng 正 "regularly and openly") refers to unreglemented inappropriate secrecy.

  5. Sī 私 (ant. gōng 公 "openly") focusses on the aspect of discreetness in secrecy.

  6. Jiàn 間 (ant. zhèng 正 "straightforwardly") refers to the secretiveness of secret agents in espionage and the like.

  7. Wēi 微 (ant. zhí 直 "straightforwardly") typically refers to secrecy achieved through indirectness or subtlety in the form of communication.

  8. Àn 暗 / 闇 (ant. míng 明 "openly, for everyone to see") gains its nuance from the original meaning of darkness and focusses on the shadiness of secretive action.

• PUBLIC
  

  1. There is only one dominant word for what pertains to the community or nation at large, gōng 公 (ant sī 私 "private").

• DEFECATE
  

  1. The rather rare general word including all forms of defecation is sōu 溲, but this word has a polite literary ring and is first attested in Han times.

  2. Biàn 便 is a colloquial informal way of referring to informal defecation in places other than latrines.

  3. Niào 溺／尿 is the standard colloquial term for urine or urination. See URINATE.

  4. Yí 遺 the exrements excreted because of incontinence.

  5. Sī 私 and the later xuán 旋 refers to males urinating. See URINATE.

  6. Shǐ 矢／屎 refers specifically to shit.

  7. Fèn 糞 refers originally to dung including rice straw etc, but came to refer to animal excrement used for fertilisation, dung. See MANURE.

• URINATE
  

  1. The standard neutral term for urination is niào 尿／溺.

  2. Sī 私 is polite and periphrastic for (apparently predominantly male) urination.

  3. Xiǔ 滫 is a rare word for urination the semantic nuance of which is not easy to ascertain.

• COPULATE
  

  1. The current general word for copulation applying to both humans and animals, are jiāo 交, hé 合, and these are all rather discrete abstract terms to use.

  2. Yù 御 refers to a male "riding" a female, and the word has no negative overtones.

  3. Tōng 通 and sī 私 are neutral historian's terms for improper sexual intercourse.

  4. Xì 戲 refers to a man making a sexual pass at a woman (occasionally actually one's own wife!).

  5. Yín 淫 and huì 穢 are derogatory terms for engaging in lewd sexual activities with someone.

  6. Xìng 幸 refers periphrastically and politely in historical texts to enjoying the sexual favours, typically of an emperor. See also FAVOUR

  7. Zhēng 烝 refers to the ritual establishment of political relations with a widowed woman of one's senior generation through publicised spending of a night with her.

  8. Bào 報 refers to establishing extramarital sexual relations with a woman of a (normally) lower but sometimes also of a higher generation, but not normally of the same generation.

  9. Gǔ 蠱 refers to a male using irregular means to obtain the sexual favours of a woman he is not married to.

  NB: gòu 構／媾 was late to become current as a term for sexual union.

• PRIVATE
  

  1. The dominant current word for privacy is sī 私 (ant. gōng 公 "public"), and the word designates everything that falls outside the responsibility of public administration. Contrast SELFISH, which is a common related category of thought in ancient China, and the differentiation between the two is by no means always clear.

Word relations
• Ant: (PRIVATE)公/PUBLIC There is only one dominant word for what pertains to the community or nation at large, gōng 公 (ant. sī 私 "private"). 6 Attributions
• Ant: (SELFISH)公/JUSTICE1 Attribution
• Ant: (SELFISH)公/JUSTICE11 Attributions
• Ant: (SELFISH)法令/LAW1 Attribution
• Ant: (SELFISH)法/LAW The current general word for a law, a legal system or any legal provision of any kind is fǎ 法. 4 Attributions
• Ant: (PRIVATE)公/EQUAL1 Attribution
• Object: (PRIVATE)匿/CONCEAL Nì 匿 (ant. zhāng 章/彰 "make a display of") refers to the physical removal of things so as to make them inaccessible to others. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (SELFISH)利/PROFIT Lì 利 (1. ant. yì 義 "considerations of rectitude"(!!); 2. ant. hài 害 "damage and loss suffered") refers to material profit. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (PRIVATE)利/PROFIT Lì 利 (1. ant. yì 義 "considerations of rectitude"(!!); 2. ant. hài 害 "damage and loss suffered") refers to material profit. 2 Attributions
• Epithet: (PRIVATE)劍/SWORD Jiàn 劍refers to the weapon with two edges which can be worn on a belt. Sword became common in China relatively late; although short bronze swords were widely used in northeastern China from Shang till early Chunqiu period, there are only few pieces known from the graves of the Western Zhou and Chunqiu aristocracy. In the middle and late Chunqiu period bronze swords came to be wider used particularly in the southern states of Wu, Yue, and Chu; the earliest textual evidence I have found for the word also dates from this period (MOZI and inscriptions on the swords of Wu and Yue). In Warring States times sword became usual weapon. Iron swords for the first time appeared in the late Chunqiu period and by the early Han completely replaced bronze pieces. Note that in Han times both aristocrats and officials worn swords like symbols of their status. 2 Attributions
• Epithet: (PRIVATE)財/PROPERTY The current very general term for moveable property and particularly things for daily use is cái 財. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (PRIVATE)門/FAMILY Mén 門 refers to the any complete respectable household including servants and dogs. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (PRIVATE)黨/FACTION The current general word for a faction is dǎng 黨.
• Assoc: (SELFISH)姦/WICKED Jiān 姦 (ant. liáng 良 "of the good sort, decent") refers to sheer human depravity and moral incompetence with no supernatural or sinister overtones. 4 Attributions
• Assoc: (SELFISH)邪/WICKED Xié 邪 (ant. zhèng 正 "straight and in no way wicked") typically involves nuances of sinister evil influences in addition to plain human depravity. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (FAVOURITE)阿/FAVOURITE E! 阿 and qū 曲refer to closeness because of sycophancy. See FLATTER 2 Attributions
• Oppos: (PRIVATE)主/RULER The current general word for a person in charge of others are zhǔ 主 (ant. pú 僕 "servant"). 1 Attribution
• Oppos: (PRIVATE)國/STATE The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows. 1 Attribution
• Oppos: (PRIVATE)主/RULER The current general word for a person in charge of others are zhǔ 主 (ant. pú 僕 "servant"). 1 Attribution
• Oppos: (PRIVATE)法/LAW The current general word for a law, a legal system or any legal provision of any kind is fǎ 法. 3 Attributions
• Oppos: (SELFISH)公/EQUAL1 Attribution