The map is clickable. Please click each word in small circle. Each images are all hints. They are not answers.
"小物" (small objects) used in the diagram title has "動" (animals and birds) and "植" (trees and grasses). "絪縕" (in-un) means the chaotic vitality of the earth. This word is not used in modern Japanese. Interestingly, each layer of the sphere up to the celestial sphere is indicated by the word "天" in the semicircle at the top of the diagram, and the bottom "地" in the semicircle at the bottom shows the earth. The outside of the semicircle probably means the inside of the earth. Another interesting thing is that the clouds "雲", and rain "雨" and the soil "土" and stone "石" are divided in and out by double circles. Rain and soil inside the circle directly affect the growth and prosperity of animals and plants, but clouds and stones do not. "本" (Hon, in Japanese reading) means changeless. Even in modern Japanese, "本質" ( essence), "本気"(= seriousness), "本当" (genuineness), "本心"(one's heart), etc, are frequently used. They all mean that they are unchanging or almost unchanging. The letter "神" (Shin) means the activities of all things. The double-lined circle in the center shows the need for interdependence between long-lived but non-moving plants and short-lived but moving animals. |