序

Phono-semantic compound:

广 (house, shelter) – semantic, associated with buildings or places.

予 (I, give, bestow) – phonetic element.

Originally referred to a schoolroom or hall where students were instructed. From there, the sense expanded to arrangement, sequence, order, and later to the preface of a book (the section that sets things in order).

Semantic range:

- sequence, order, arrangement;

- introductory note, preface (esp. in literature);

- educational hall or place of learning (classical);

- figurative: arrangement of affairs, beginning.

서문 (序文) — preface, foreword

학서 (學序) — school, learning hall (archaic/classical)

서차 (序次) — order, sequence

서론 (序論) — introduction, opening argument

In Confucian texts, 序 is often tied to the ordering of human relationships.

《禮記·學記》 (Book of Rites, “Record of Learning”): 序 refers to the school hall, where ritual and learning set the foundation for moral cultivation.

In broader Confucian discourse, 序 symbolizes putting affairs and roles in proper sequence, harmonizing personal virtue with social order.

Thus 序 embodies not just “arrangement” in a practical sense, but the cosmic and ethical ordering of human society.