Mao Collection, Upper Volume Radical: Heart (xīn) 恤 Kangxi Dictionary strokes: 10 Page 385, Entry 04 Pronounced xu (falling tone). Shuowen Jiezi (Explanation of Graphs and Analysis of Characters): To worry. Formed from heart, with xue (blood) acting as the phonetic. Book of Documents (Shangshu), Chapter Pan Geng: Always respect the great worries. Book of Odes (Shijing), Lesser Odes: When going out, one carries worries. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Spring Offices, Grand Master: Using rituals of sympathy to mourn the chaotic. All are defined as worry. Also means to receive or to provide relief. Rites of Zhou, Earth Offices: The six conducts are filial piety, brotherly love, harmony, kinship, accountability, and sympathy. Commentary: Sympathy means to provide relief to the worried and the poor. General Principles: Providing relief to the poor and elderly is called sympathy. Also, Zengyun (Addition to the Rhyme Dictionary): To pity, or to worry for others during disasters and dangers. Rites of Zhou, Earth Offices: The twelve teachings, the eighth is to teach sympathy through oaths, so the people will not be idle. Commentary: When people suffer misfortune or bereavement, teach them to worry for and provide sympathy to one another. Also, mutual worry is called sympathy. Rites of Zhou, Earth Offices: The eight, the sixth is not to show sympathy. Commentary by Zheng Sinong: Sympathy means mutual worry. Also, xu xu, the appearance of being worried or anxious. Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan), Year 12 of Duke Zhao: And he said, worried and anxious. Also written in a variant form (xu). Book of Odes (Shijing), Tang Odes, Small Preface: He did not have sympathy for his people. Commentary: Sympathy, also written in the variant form (xu). Rites of Zhou, Spring Offices, Regulations on Regalia: To use sympathy during famines and disasters. Commentary: Sympathy means to open the storehouses to provide relief and rescue. Also a surname. The Jin state official Xuyou. Heart and blood form the character for sympathy, implying that the heart is anxious and sorrowful as if one were suffering a disaster oneself. Textual Research: Also mutual love is called sympathy. Rites of Zhou, Earth Offices: The eight, the sixth is not to show sympathy. Commentary by Zheng Sinong: Sympathy means mutual love. Strictly following the original commentary of the Rites of Zhou, both instances of the word love have been corrected to worry.