The Tongue FamilyRadical 舌
One tongue, two great duties
ShuowenShuowen: “Tongue, in the mouth — that by which one speaks and distinguishes tastes. From 干 and 口.”
The oracle form of 舌: a forked tip reaching out of a mouth. The tongue handles two great duties — tasting and speaking — and this family grows along both lines. One line runs to taste: sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, salty, umami queue on the tongue-tip. The other runs to language: the simplified characters 话, 敌, 辞, 乱 all hide a tongue — the tongue can stir up trouble, and also settle the world. “A three-inch tongue, stronger than a million-man army.”
The Root Character · Reading “舌” in Three Layers
See the form
The oracle form: a forked tip reaching from the mouth — a snake’s tongue has the same shape, but the ancients told them apart: the snake’s fork has no feeling; the human tongue does.
Read the logic
Tongue characters split into two schools: the tasters (甜, 舐) and the speakers (话, 辞, 乱, 敌 — a tongue hides in each simplified form).
Grasp the wisdom
“A three-inch tongue, stronger than a million-man army.” The tongue is the softest organ, and it has levered the hardest history.
The Making of a Glyph
- Oracle boneA tongue out of the mouth, tip forking.
- BronzeThe mouth squares; the tongue centres.
- Small sealA mark added above — sound indicated.
- Clerical & regular千 over 口: 舌.
Glyphs are schematic reconstructions, not rubbings.
The Chain of the Five Tastes
Sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, salty — five tastes queue on the tongue-tip, and each flavour leads to a kind of life.
The tongue’s queue of flavoursShuowen: “sweet — first of the five tastes.”
“As sweet as malt syrup” (see the Food Family’s 饴) — sweetness is the origin point of flavour.
Character Assembly · Two Parts Become One
When two parts walk toward each other, a new character is born. Watch how they meet.
甜 tián
FormThe tongue (舌) tasting sweetness (甘).
LogicThe tongue meets sweetness — one of the plainest compound ideas.
Wisdom甜 is happiness drawn as an idea: the tongue knows, and so the heart knows.
辞 cí
FormIn the simplified form, a tongue (舌) beside toil (辛).
LogicOriginally 辭, the words of legal argument — lawsuits tax the tongue and the heart.
Wisdom修辞, 辞令, 辞职 — whatever is spoken is 辞. Tongue and toil at the same table: speaking has always carried a sting.
乱 luàn
FormIn the simplified form, a tongue (舌) with a hook (乚).
LogicThe old form 亂 is “untangling silk”; the simplified pairs a tongue with a hook — the tongue stirs, and trouble follows.
WisdomOne tongue stirs the trouble; and the settling of trouble also belongs to the tongue — the strategists stirred the world with one tongue, and pacified it with the same.
舐 shì
FormThe tongue (舌) beside 氐 as sound — to lick.
LogicTo touch with the tongue is 舐.
Wisdom舐犊情深 — the old cow licking her calf: the deepest love, in the most primitive gesture.
Branches of the Family
Hover (or tap) a character to see what it means.
Works of the Tongue
The actions a tongue can perform, each coined.
- 甜
- 舐
- 舙
- 憩
- 甛
- 乱
- 辞
- 舔
A Tongue in Other Characters
Tongues hide in simplified forms, each with a story (the ancients wrote 𠯑 as sound; the shape reads as tongue).
- 话
- 活
- 刮
- 敌
- 适
- 括
- 鸹
- 聒
「A three-inch tongue is stronger than a million-man army.」
—— Records of the Grand Historian
「The tongue is the root of gain and loss; the mouth is the gate of fortune and ruin.」
—— Proverb