“疾”轻“病”重质疑

On the Connotation Degree of Chinese Characters "Ji" and "Bing"

“疾、病”二词尽管产生时代不同,但在“疾病、生病”义上却是一对同义词。古汉语界现在仍然还流行着“疾”轻“病”重的说法,实际上这种说法是对前人注释语的一种误解。通过对中土传统文献、训诂专著、医学文献、佛经文献的从汉语史的角度进行统计分析,可以明显看出“疾”和“病”并无轻重之别,“疾”不仅表小病,也可表重病;而“病”不仅表重病,亦可表小病。两词不仅散用无异,对文也无别。

Though coming into being at different times, the commonly used Chinese characters “ji” and “bing” are regarded as synonyms, both meaning “illness” or “falling ill”. While some still holds that “ji” refers to the illness less serious that “bing”, it is found from the statistics of the classic literature, the annotation and interpretation monographs, medical works, and Buddhist scriptures, that the two characters has no difference in their connotations.