“酃”字考

A Philological Study on the Chinese Character of '酃'

酃在汉代是今衡阳市东耒水入湘处的地名．自赵宋以来是今湘东炎陵县名。其偏旁需字同雷、电、震、霆为同一个词族．是古人对雷电自然现象的文字记录。酃曾名为窥和庞．反映了先民对雷电之自然崇拜到龙之神灵崇拜的认识进程，也是我国龙崇拜源于雷电崇拜的一个典型例证。汉酃和宋酃在行政、地城和农耕文化的联系．可证洣水、耒水流域是炎帝神农氏的家园．酃以地望名的形式保存了这一历史记录。

In the Han Dynasty,the Chinese character'酃'(Ling) was used as the name of the place where the Eastern Lei River joins the Xiangjiang River.From the Song Dynasty on,'酃'was used as the name of Yanling county in the east of Hunan province.The left part of the character,'霝',comes from the same character family with'雷','电','震'and霆.They were used to describe the natural phenomena of thunder and lightning in ancient China.'酃'was once written as '寵'and'庞',which shows the recognitive process from worshipping thunder and lightning to worshipping dragon.The relations between the character'酃'of the Han Dynasty and that of the Song Dynasty in administrative divisions and agriculture proves that the Mi River valley and Lei River valley were once the homested of the Yan Emperor.