朽
=
丂
+
木
:
Marie Curie (xi) visits the outhouse (ou3) in late summer and finds an old rotten (朽) Christmas tree (木). In fact the tree is so rotten that she can't endure the smell and has to put on a breathing mask (丂).
tree / wood / coffin / wooden / simple / numb / one of the eight categories of ancient musical instruments 八音[ba1 yin1]
木
=
八
+
十
:
Mnemonic symbol: a Christmas tree. Malte Monkey is putting up a Christmas tree (木) in the bathroom of the space station (Ø4). He's using a cross (十) as a base to put the tree on, and decorates the tree with eight-balls (八).
the three imperishables, three ways to distinguish oneself that aren't forgotten by history: through one's virtue 立德[li4 de2], one's service 立功[li4 gong1] and one's writings 立言[li4 yan2] (from the Zuo Zhuan 左傳|左传[Zuo3 Zhuan4])