“穆”之本义考

The Original Meaning of“Mu”

《说文解字·禾部》"穆"之本义,历来众说纷纭,其中以"华美"与"幽微"二说为多。通过字形与文献考察,认为"华美"当为"穆"之本义,而"幽微"当是"穆"之假借义。

There have been a variety of opinions about th e original meaning of “Mu”in Shuowen Jiezi. Most scholars have approved that “Huamei”or“Youwei”was its original meaning. Through the investigation about grapheme and literatures, this paper concludes that“Huamei”should be the original one, and“Youwei”should be the borrowed one.