Gu Meanings
The Hanyu Da Zidian dictionary defines 9 gu 蠱 meanings, plus the rare reading ye 蠱 "bewitchingly pretty; seductive; coquettish" .
- (1) Poisoning from an abdominal wug
- (2) In ancient books, a type of artificially cultured poisonous wug
- (3) Ghost of a person whose decapitated head was impaled on a stake
- (4) Evil heat and noxious qi that harms humans
- (5) Wug pest that eats grain.
- (6) Sorcery that harms humans
- (7) Seduce; tempt; confuse; mislead
- (8) Affair; assignment
- (9) One of the 64 hexagrams. It is formed from Gen 艮 ) over Xun 巽
The (early 4th century BCE) Zuozhuan commentary to the (ca. 6th-5th centuries BCE) Chunqiu history provides an ancient example of 蠱's polysemy. It records four gu meanings – 2.5 "grain which (molders and) flies away", 2.6 "insanity", 2.7 "delusion and disorder", and 2.9 "same name" – in a 541 BCE story (昭公1, tr. Legge 1872:580-581) about a physician named He 和"Harmony" from Qin explaining gu to the ruler of Jin.
The marquis of asked the help of a physician from, and the earl sent one to see him, who said, "The disease cannot be cured, according to the saying that when women are approached, the chamber disease becomes like insanity. It is not caused by Spirits nor by food; it is that delusion which has destroyed the mind. Your good minister will die; it is not the will of Heaven to preserve him." The marquis said, "May women (then) not be approached?" The physician replied, "Intercourse with them must be regulated." … (further) asked what he meant by ‘insanity’; and (the physician) replied, “I mean that which is produced by the delusion and disorder of excessive sensual indulgence. Look at the character; – it is formed by the characters for a vessel and for insects (蠱 = 皿 and 蟲). It is also used of grain which (molders and) flies away. In the, (the symbols of) a woman deluding a young man, (of) wind throwing down (the trees of) a mountain, go by the same name (蠱; ☶ under ☴): all these point to the same signification." pronounced him a good physician, gave him large gifts, and sent him back to .
Read more about this topic: Gu (poison)
Famous quotes containing the word meanings:
“An amoeba is a formless thing which takes many shapes. It moves by thrusting out an arm, and flowing into the arm. It multiplies by pulling itself in two, without permanently diminishing the original. So with words. A meaning may develop on the periphery of the body of meanings associated with a word, and shortly this tentacle-meaning has grown to such proportions that it dwarfs all other meanings.”
—Charlton Laird (b. 1901)