hey Mingshi -- need kanji!

[ben]

Hi Mingshi and all other kanji nerds on the KWF forums,

I'm looking for a kanji that William Scott Wilson says in his book "The Samurai Ideal" is pronounced "uruwashii".

However it is not "rei no uruwashii" (beautiful, graceful, refined).

It is made up of the characters "bun" on the left and "bu" on the right, as in "bun bu ryo do". I have not been able to find it in any Japanese dictionary, even my shodo dictionary which has lots of old characters in it.

Do you know it? Also, how is it pronounced in Cantonese?

Your challenge should you chose to accept it...

b

PS - sorry for implying that you're a nerd.

[lucian]

Is this it? 斌 I get it by typing 'hin' but said hun/bun
sorry if its not the right one my kanji sucks

[Musha]

You should draw it ben, on my XP IME there is a program where you draw a kanji you don't know and it gives you the reading and meaning in Japanese .

[ben]

Thanks Lucian, you might have hit the nail on the head, but my old OS can't read that character.

And Musha, here 'tis. Good old texta (and Photoshop).

b

[Musha]

Thanks ben, Lucian got it right. Just says

"Hin beautiful; harmony of appearance;" I am not sure if this is what you wanted to know.

[mingshi]

Sorry my debana waza is a bit slow today... Get caught up in more academic things.

Yeah simply the kanji would mean harmony, but in its original context from one of Confucious' book (Leun-yu / Rin Go), it was used in the term "Wen zi Bin Bin" - Having both knowledge and inner character (i.e. achieving harmony), making you a gentleman /scholar, etc. (I know the complete text but don't want to bore you with it!)

In Cantonese it is pronounced as Bun (exactly the same as in "hot cross bun"). Also there is another kanji with the same meaning - 彬. Maybe 斌 just look nicer.

I hope you are not considering putting kanji on your zekken!!

[ben]

Sorry it took so long to reply Mingshi. Thanks for your help and thanks to everyone else too.

Don't worry, I'm not about to put any kanji on my zekken either.

Now can yuo help me with the other one?

b