Word
While Kui 夔 originally named a mythic being, Modern Standard Chinese uses it in several other expressions. The reduplication kuikui 夔夔 means "awe-struck; fearful; grave" (see the Shujing below). The compounds kuilong 夔龍 (with "dragon") and kuiwen 夔紋 (with "pattern; design") name common motifs on Zhou Dynasty Chinese bronzes. The chengyu idiom yikuiyizu 一夔已足 (lit. one Kui already enough") means "one able person is enough for the job".
Kui is also a proper name. It is an uncommon one of the Hundred Family Surnames. Kuiguo 夔國 was a Warring States Period state, located in present-day Zigui County (Hubei), that Chu annexed in 634 BCE. Kuizhou 夔州, located in present-day Fengjie County of Chongqing (Sichuan), was established in 619 CE as a Tang Dynasty prefecture.
Kuiniu 夔牛 or 犪牛 is an old name for the "wild ox; wild yak". The (1578 CE) Bencao Gangmu (tr. Read 1931, no. 356) entry for maoniu 氂牛 "wild yak", which notes medicinal uses such as yak gallstones for "convulsions and delirium", lists kiuniu as a synonym for weiniu 犩牛, "Larger than a cow. From the hills of Szechuan, weighing several thousand catties." The biological classification Bos grunniens (lit. "grunting ox") corresponds with the roaring Kui "god of rain and thunder" (see the Shanhaijing below). Translating kui 夔 as "walrus" exemplifies a ghost word. The Wiktionary translation equivalent "1. one-legged monster, 2. walrus" was copied from the Unihan Database. However, Chinese kui does not mean "walrus" (haixiang 海象 lit. "sea elephant") and this ghost first appeared in early Chinese-English dictionaries by Robert Henry Mathews and Herbert Giles. Mathews (1931:538) translates kui as "A one-legged monster; a walrus; Grave, respectful", which was adapted from Giles (1912:821) "A one-legged creature; a walrus. Grave; reverential". Giles's dictionary copied this "walrus" mistake from his translation (1889:211-2) of the Zhuangzi (see below), "The walrus said to the centipede, 'I hop about on one leg, but not very successfully. How do you manage all these legs you have?'" He footnotes, "'Walrus' is of course an analogue. But for the one leg, the description given by a commentator of the creature mentioned in the text applies with significant exactitude."
Read more about this topic: Kui (Chinese Mythology)
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