Zi Collection, Page Position: Lower
Radical: Again (yòu)
Kangxi stroke count: 4
Page 165, Entry 06
Ancient form. Pronounced you (falling tone). According to the Shuowen Jiezi, people who share the same aspirations and principles are called friends.
Book of Rites (Liji): Confucians who share the same aspirations and direction, study morality and methods together, are happy and harmonious when associating, and yield to one another without fatigue. When they do not meet for a long time, they do not doubt each other even upon hearing rumors. Their behavior is based on righteousness and established in morality. If their aspirations are the same, they encourage one another; if different, they each withdraw. This is how they make friends.
It also refers to being brotherly and harmonious. Classic of History (Shujing): Only by being filial to parents and brotherly to siblings.
It also refers to anything of the same kind that aligns. Sima Guang (Qianxu): The ugly corresponds to the friend. Heaven and Earth are friends to each other, allowing all things to grow. The sun and moon are friends to each other, allowing all things to be illuminated. Wind and rain are friends to each other, allowing plants and trees to flourish. Exemplary persons are friends to each other, allowing virtue to be achieved.
Additionally, in rhyme supplements, pronounced wei (rising tone). Former Han History (Hanshu), Rites and Music Treatise, Song of the Heavenly Horse: With a poised posture, traveling beyond ten thousand miles, what now can match this, having only the dragon as a friend.