Greetings Bob and Louis, Bob, I am glad my previous post was
useful. Good luck with your explorations. Louis, thanks you for
your information about the alternate graph for "he2." Although I
read the Daodejing some time ago, I do not recall the more
complicated "he2" character from there. I think I recall it only
from reading the phrase zong4heng2bai3he2 (×ÝºáÞããØ) in
discussions of the Warring States period. I am not sure about
the origin of this phrase, but Wenlin software translates it as:
"maneuver among various political groupings." From this, I
presumed it related to he2zong4lian2heng2 (ºÏ×ÝÁ¬ºá), and thus
referred to the various "vertical" and "horizontal" coalitions
in the Warring States period. Although different characters are
used for "he2," the meanings and context seem similar. In
"zhonghengbaihe," "bai" and "he" appear to be opposites, meaning
"separating" and "uniting." This recalls for me the English
phrase "divide and conquer." In "hezhonglianheng," "he" and
"lian" appear to be complementary,