Editing Mu (negative) (section)

==Characters==
In traditional [[Chinese character classification]], the uncommon class of [[phonetic loan character]]s involved borrowing the character for one word to write another near-[[homophone]]. For instance, the character {{lang|zh|[[wikt:其|其]]}} originally depicted a winnowing basket ({{Transliteration|zh|ji}}), and scribes used it as a graphic loan for {{Transliteration|zh|qi}} ({{lang|zh|其}}, "his; her; its"), which resulted in a new character {{Transliteration|zh|ji}} ({{lang|zh|[[wikt:箕|箕]]}}) (clarified with the [[Radical 118|bamboo radical]] {{lang|zh|⺮}}) to specify the basket.

The character {{Transliteration|zh|wu}} ({{lang|zh|[[wikt:無|無]]}}) originally meant "dance" and was later used as a graphic loan for {{Transliteration|zh|wu}}, "not". The earliest graphs for {{lang|zh|無}} pictured a person with outstretched arms holding something (possibly sleeves, tassels, ornaments) and represented the word {{Transliteration|zh|wu}} "dance; dancer". After {{Transliteration|zh|wu}} meaning "dance" was borrowed as a loan for {{Transliteration|zh|wu}} meaning "not; without", the original meaning was elucidated with the radical {{lang|zh|舛}}, "[[Radical 136|opposite feet]]" at the bottom of {{Transliteration|zh|wu}}, {{lang|zh|[[wikt:舞|舞]]}} "dance".