亢,
which means arrogant, haughty, high and mighty; kang is powerful, knows his power, likes the thought of his power, and may abuse his power. 亢 can be a positive or negative word depending on context, like so many other Chinese words. There is also the sense of the joy of power, joy in the sense of awareness or memory of one’s capacities.
Kang is the image of a mounted KNiGht.
Rong3
冗
in contrast means superfluous, extraneous. 冗 rong’s image is of a table covered with a cloth. The cloth is superfluous.
Notice that a cloth has no handle.
But a cloth covering can have sides.
So rong has no dot but does have sides.
In contrast kang has a dot, which is the knight’s helmet.
The line under it are the knights arms.
His mount is the table character.
Mnemonics:
KANG
Knight’s
Arrogant,
Now
Grand
arrogant, powerful, the joy of power.
Red
Orange
Needless
Garment
SUPERFLOUS
There is a SUPERFLUOUS
Red Orange Needlepoint
Gilded cloth 冖 mi4 on the
table! 几 ji1