木 mu "tree" + 既 ji "already" = 概 gai4 "generally; outline; without an exception"
I was having trouble remembering this character, so I started thinking of a phenomenological explanation:
In any experience we encounter the outlines of things, and the mind quickly imagines the details of the thing; as we process the information we see the details in the experience correlate to details of observation; this produces the imagination of further details and further miniature conjectures, which are in turn confirmed as we draw closer to the object in question.
The outline of the tree emerges in experience, perhaps similar to the manner the mind produces an image in response to the written word; the outline resolves into a more precise picture; the imagination increases the resolution of the idea: leaves sway on branches that spread out from the central axis; even if some variety that lacks a straight trunk, we still conjecture some architectural design, some patterning of branching lines that emerge from a central base and rise, reaching, into the air.
