Tsêng is composed of 八 pa to divide above, and 曰 yüeh to speak below, a middle portion which is said to be the phonetic. It is defined as a stretcher-out of language, from which we can understand its sense of past, finished, especially as applied to time, thus imparting a tense-value to verbs. With this meaning it is now read ts'êng², while read tsêng¹ as above it means to add to, and here qualifies another tsu, understood. It is also a common surname , and is now classed under radical 曰 yüeh.