“(歹羊)”字考辨

Textual Research of Vulgar Word xiang(歹羊)

“(?)”,或作“(?)”,早见于先秦古籍《墨子》、《山海经》。“殚”为何字,后人众说纷纭。通过字形、异文和词义证明:“(?)”其实就是“祥”字的异体。

The word xiang ((?) or(?)) appears as early as in the Book of Mounts and Seas and the Book of Mozi, and later it also appears in Taoist and Buddhist Scriptures. However, as to the exact meaning of the word different people have different opinions, some regarding it as xiang (祥), some yang (殃),still some jie (解).From the perspectives of the form, meaning and use of the word, this paper shows that xiang is a variant form of the word xiang(祥), which is not recorded in dictionaries; that xiang ((?))can refer to monsters, which is not denoted in dictionaries; that xiang ((?) or (?)) can have the general sense of ghosts, while Chinese Dictionary (《汉语大字典》)incorrectly refers it as female ghosts; and that it is completely wrong to regard xiang ((?)) as yang (殃)or jie(解).