to not be; not / wrong; incorrect / non-; un-; in-; de- / to reproach; to blame / (coll.) to insist on; simply must
非
=
三
+
丿
+
丨
:
Mnemonic symbol: a negative film (photography).
Frankenstein's monster (f) made an effort to photograph the Eiffel Tower (ei1), but now his negative (非) is a big mess. In front of the tower he set up a camera on a Cartesian coordinate system (三) as a tripod, and he attached a banana (丿) and a dinosaur bone (丨) to the camera so that he can finely tune the angles. All was for naught as he now holds the messed up negative in his hands.
三
=
一
+
二
:
Mnemonic symbol: a Cartesian coordinate system with three (三) axes.
Socrates (s-) is performing in front of the anthill (-an1). He created an electrical flute by attaching a large capacitor (二) to the flute (一), so that he can get the attention of all the ants. Moreover, he's balancing on a Cartesian coordinate system (三). Unfortunately, only three (三) ants stop to watch the performance.
vertical stroke (in Chinese characters), referred to as 豎筆|竖笔[shu4 bi3]
Mnemonic symbol: a dinosaur bone. Sheldon Shrimp (shu) found a gorgeous dinosaur bone (丨) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and is cracking it open to eat its bone marrow.
诽
=
讠
+
非
:
Frankenstein's Monster (f) is regularly slandering (诽) around by posting negatives (非) on the advertising column (讠) in the Eiffel Tower (ei3).
Knowledge is not innate to man, how can we overcome doubt? / We are not born with knowledge, how does one achieve maturity? (i.e. without guidance from a teacher - Tang dynasty essayist Han Yu 韓愈|韩愈[Han2 Yu4])