June3] PROCEEDINGS. [1890.Sfssi. Certainly, it cannot be alleged, except in jest, that "any
Chinese word may mean anything." The statement is signally
falsein the case of this particular soundh'iung,whichmeansexactly
whata knowledge of Accadian would leadus to expect. Let us
followit a little further. Thenexttwo characters are >J»iiJ h'iung,
"frightened,startled"{heart+ breast), andfej, h'iung, "thethorax,
the breast, the feelings, the heart, the affections ; clamour, brawling."
Nowthissecondcharacteris meant to represent " the thorax en
veloping the heart," and, consequently, answers exactly to the
Accadian ffim, which, in archaic form would be vy. It is the
heart (fy|) within an enclosure. The recognized terms for
" heart" in Accadian are Sag, Sab (= Sam), andSa; and the oldest
knownformof -"YTT 's V • ^n Chinese, t$, sin, old sound sim,
" the heart," appears in the dialects as satn (= sim), sin, sing,
and shin. By a natural transfer of ideas, the term also means
"middle,""mind,""will,""affections,""desire,""origin,""source."
The commonAccadian phrase -+■]f] tTTT*'ana-Sagga, " the
middleof heaven " (kirib Same),is parallel to the Chinese t'ien-sin
(din-sim), " the meridian, the zenith " ; and the Chinese t\j ffl >
sin-fien(sim-din), " design, intention,"seemsto supply the d-form
corresponding to the Accadian ^"YYT~TT^ ~~]Sag-ginna, yyy
~yT^jj^y Sag-gin-gan," wish design" (bibil, or babdl libbi).
Nowthe Accadian ffirrf. which we have seen to have been
originallya form identicalwithf?5J h'iung (sin or sim), "thethorax,"
is rendered "heart,"and"middle,"and"bosom,"by the Assyrians
(libbu, kirbu, surru= " Herzbeutel," Delitzsch), just like yyy Sa
(b, g) ; while, amongits sounds, we find Sim,whichis explained by
the rarer synonymhalhallatu,"heart"(cp. JjJ^tf, "theheart,"and
also"theliver"). It was a great satisfactionto me to find this word
5fM,so closely correspondingto the old Chinese sim,"heart"; and
to which Sab (=5am) is related as man, "two,"is to min "two."
I trust my readers maybe equally satisfied.f
* Cp. Nos. 236 and 258, Amiaudand Mechineau, Tabl.Comp.
t In regard to L1-K1R, the other valueof the ideogram, rendered"heart"
(tibbu),I cannothelprememberingthat Li means " in," properly " the inside," both
in Accadian and in Chinese, muchas libbu and kirbu themselvesare often usedin
combinationwith a preposition to indicate the same idea. As to KIR, k'iao
Cantonesek'iu,"a hole," "cavity,""theheart,"mayperhapsbe compared
(*'j'«=ki-r). AndJapanesekokoro,"heart,"maybe related.
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