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From: Christian Soffel <m51079@mtc.ntnu.edu.tw>
Subject: Re: sexist language in Chinese and German
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In the Kangxi-dictionary I found the following passage on the character 
hao4 ~{:C~}; it seems to be quoted from the Shuo Wen:

    Ai4 er2 bu4 shi4 ye3; nyu3 zi3 zhi1 xing4, rou2 er2 zhi4; you3 suo3
    hao4 ze2 ai4 er2 bu4 shi4; gu4 yu2 wen2 nyu3 zi3 wei2 hao3.

  ~{0.6x2;JMR2E.WSV.PTHa6xVMSPKy:CTr0.6x2;JM9JSZNDE.WSN*:C~}

On the board there are different views about the meaning of the 
characters nyu3 zi3. Some say, it means "woman" (which if evidently 
correct, when you look at the Confucian classics). Some say, it means 
"woman and child". I don't know, to whom I should agree. Maybe it can be 
have both meanings.
  In the above quotation, it makes sense to translate the first nyu3 zi3 
with "woman" ("the character of a woman is soft ..."). In the second 
place I think both makes sense (" 'woman' and 'child' together form 
'hao4'", or "woman forms hao4"). But I think it is more likely, that 
"hao4" is a picture of a women together with a child, expressing the 
mother's love to her child:
  



  Hao4 = a child being feeded?
  ----------------------------

  Did the character "hao4" originally mean "woman" or "a women who is 
loving her child"?

  The interesting point is: that the Kanxi-Dictionary gives some old 
variants of the character "hao4", two of them are formed with a chou3 
~{3s~}at the left: the one form is chou3+nyu3, the other is chou3+zi3. 
Chou3 today is the second earth branch. But the old character chou3 shows 
a hand holding a small thing, something like a stick.
  Thus, maybe the character "chou3+zi3" is showing a hand feeding a 
child, and the character "chou3+nyu3" a woman, who is feeding someone.  
Maybe I'm thinking too far, but I have the impression, that these old 
forms of the character "hao4" are focussing a relationship between mother 
and child; so I think the verbal meaning "love" is the older one.
  But I confess, I'm not an expert in old chinese characters. Maybe 
someone know the old forms of hao4 in the oracle bone script. That could 
be very helpful on this point.
