始

Ideogrammatic compound:

Composed of 女 (woman) + 台 (platform / feeding, nourishment).

台 itself is from 匕 (spoon) + 口 (mouth), depicting feeding with a spoon.

The whole graph symbolizes a mother feeding her child, representing the start of life or “beginning.”

시작 (始作) — beginning, start

시초 (始初) — origin, outset

시발 (始發) — departure, initiation

시원 (始原) — origin, genesis

The character 始 carries deep resonance in East Asian thought.

In Confucian texts, 始 often marks the inaugural moment of action or virtue (“始於家” — beginning in the family).

In Daoist cosmology, beginnings are tied to the Dao (道), where all things emerge from the unmanifest. The notion of 始 parallels the concept of 本 (root/origin), emphasizing that every process and transformation has a point of departure.

In classical literature, 始 is not merely “the first time,” but the foundational moment that sets the course for all that follows.