“昔”字本义探究

The Exploration of the Chinese Character"Xi(昔)"'s Original Meaning

关于“昔”字的本义,历来说法不一。首先是许慎的“干肉”说,这种说法没有根据“昔”造字之初的字形,是有误的;其次是叶玉森的“洪水之日”说,从造字理念和会意字形符的表意作用两方面来看,这种说法存在漏洞;最后是何金松的“晒干”说,这一说法无法合理解释象日之形在象波浪条之形下方的这种字形。本文以上三种说法为基础,对字形进行分析,并以相关文献资料为佐证,提出“昔”的本义是由日落而引申出的“从前”、“往日”义。

The original meaning of the Chinese character"Xi(昔)"has historically been different.The first is Xu Shen’s“dried meat”,which is not based on the glyph at the beginning of the word“Xi(昔)”,so it is wrong;the second is Ye Yusen’s“Day of the Flood”,from the concept of word making and the ideographic function of understanding the glyph,this statement is unreasonable in some ways.Finally,He Jinsong's"sundrying"said that this statement cannot reasonably explain the shape of the sun below the wave shape.Based on the above three statements in this article,by analyzing the font and corroborating the relevant literature,it is proposed that the original meaning of"Xi(昔)"is the meaning of"formerly"and"old days"derived from sunset.