I'v enoticed a fair number of characters that have the 王 component in them (ie. 瑞), but the Skritter breakdown lists 玉 instead. I chatted a bit about this with Evan and it seems that etymologically, 玉 is more accurate. However, 王 matches wih the characters current written form.

What would be the more useful breakdown, 玉 or 王？

Fun, Yesterday I did an investigation on this since I too did find this very strange. Agree that all sources do have 玉 instead of 王 in the etymology. What I did find is that 玉 is not at all related to 王. 玉 is probably a string of beads and probably originally jade discs that where very popular then. The dot where added just to distinguish it from king 王. So I have to go for 玉 being the meaningful breakdown after all.

Edit, to give some sources to this: 玉http://books.google.se/books?id=3ZHD9wdspXgC&lpg=PP1&dq=a+guide+to+remembering+the+japanese+characters&pg=PA29&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

and for 王 http://books.google.se/books?id=3ZHD9wdspXgC&lpg=PP1&dq=a+guide+to+remembering+the+japanese+characters&pg=PA2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Those are the best i could find but there are also interesting information about this in the book China: empire of the living symbols: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2377708.China I read the Swedish edition but i guess they are the same. Very good book by the way if you are interested in the history of the characters.

Thanks Mandarinboy2 for the references. I think I'll pick up the Kindle version of China: Empire of the living symbols.

My main question is, why does the more "meaningful" etymology win out over what is actually written in the modern character?

For example, for all simplified characters, we don't trace the etymology down the traditional character components to be more etymologically correct

ie. 导 gets broken down into 巳 and 寸, even though the character comes from 導 which gets broken down into 道 and 寸.

We do it in this case because it's visually close enough, and because it's much easier to trace meaningful etymological origins when viewing it as 玉 (jade). I just pulled these examples from the word popup (simplified Chinese, some definitions truncated):

国 guó: country; state; nation
现 xiàn: appear; now
球 qiú: ball; globe
班 bān: team; class; squad
玩 wán: to play; have a good time; visit;
理 lǐ: reason; science; tidy up; manage; texture
环 huán: ring (not for finger); bracelet; to surround
宝 bǎo: jewel; gem; treasure; precious
珠 zhū: bead; precious stone; gem; jewel
玛 mǎ: agate
瑰 guī: semi-precious stone; extraordinary
玻 bō: glass
珍 zhēn: precious; valuable; treasure; rare
璃 lí: colored glaze; glass
斑 bān: variety; speckled; spot; colored p
琼 qióng: fine jade; beautiful; exquisite; Hainan province (abbr.)
瑞 ruì: lucky; auspicious; good omen
珊 shān: coral
莹 yíng: jade-like stone; luster of gems
琐 suǒ: petty; trivial; trifling
玫 méi: rose
瑜 yú: fine jade; gem
玑 jī: an irregular pearl
璇 xuán: fine jade
玲 líng: (tinkling sound of gem pendants)
碧 bì: green jade; bluish green; blue
琳 lín: gem; beautiful jade
珑 lóng: cleverly made; (tinkling sound of gem pendants)
瑚 hú: coral
玖 jiǔ: (black stone); nine (banker's anti-fraud number)
璋 zhāng: ancient stone ornament
瑶 yáo: jade; mother-of-pearl
瑛 yīng: crystal; lustrous
琢 zhuó, zuó: to cut (gems); ponder
璧 bì: a round flat piece of jade with hol
瑾 jǐn: brilliancy (of gems); fine jade
琉 liú: sparkling stone; glazed; opaque
琅 láng: tinkling of pendants; jade-like stone
琪 qí: fine jade
珀 pò: amber
玺 xǐ: imperial or royal seal
瑕 xiá: blemish; flaw in jade
琦 qí: fine jade; valuable stone; curio
璐 lù: fine jade
顼 xū: grieved; anxious
珂 kē: jade-like stone
瓒 zàn: libation cup
璞 pú: stone which contains jade inside; pure and honest
琏 liǎn: vessel used for grain offerings
琛 chēn: treasure; gem
瑙 nǎo: agate
滢 yíng: clear; limpid (of water)
璜 huáng: semi-circular jade ornament
琬 wǎn: ensign of royalty
玷 diàn: blemish; disgrace; flaw in a piece of jade
瑁 mào: jade; tortoiseshell
蝈 guō: katydid; long-horned grasshopper
琥 hǔ: amber
璨 càn: fine jade; luster of a gem
璀 cuǐ: luster of gems; dazzling
珏 jué: gems mounted together
琨 kūn: jade
掴 guó: to slap; to smack
钰 yù: hard metals
琊 yá: used in place names (variant)
帼 guó: (archaic) cap worn by women
珈 jiā: a jade ornament worn by women in ancient China; jewelry
琰 yǎn: gem; glitter of gems
珩 héng: top gem of pendant from girdle
玳 dài: tortoise shell; turtle
琮 cǒng: hollow square or round pillar made of jade used as a ritual instrument
珞 luò: neck-ornament
玎 dīng: jingling; tinkling
玢 fēn: porphyrites
珐 fà: enamel ware
玮 wěi: a type of jade; precious
瑷 ài: fine quality jade
璺 wèn: a crack (in porcelain, glassware, etc.)
瑗 yuàn: large jade ring
璎 yīng: jade-like stone; necklace
珥 ěr: pearl or jade earring
玟 wén, mín: veins in jade; jade-like stone
珧 yáo: mother-of-pearl
癍 bān: refers to diseases characterized by spots on the skin
珉 mín: alabaster
珙 gǒng: a kind of jade
軉 yù: treasure

I was surprised by how many there were, but also note that after the first few, almost all of them are related to jade or gemstones.

Thanks Nick, Evan, and Mandarinboy2. I am convinced now :)

王 is indeed different. The LHS version of 玉 has a 挑 stroke on the bottom, and not a 横. I obviously did not notice that my fist time through Heisig (he does explain it) and that got compounded by the fact that Heisig uses the same component keywords for 王 and the LHS form of 玉.

These distinctions were critical when looking up things in a dictionary back when those things were made of paper. I think now its useful to know the true origins when decoding or memorizing the word. I notice a lot of people create mnemonics based on the original meaning of the constituent parts. Doesn't work for me because usually I don't know them. I should probably bite the bullet and learn all the common radicals some day.

I was told - I don't know if it's true - that the original simplified form of country had 'king' in the middle, but this was changed to 'jade' by the Communist government.

囯 can be found in the 康熙字典 and the definition is 《正字通》俗國字。 http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0217.gif , but 国 is not in it.