Dear Z?™ev: Vacuity or Deficiency

[Guest guest]

Shinjiro,

 

I am not joining the discussion/debate here, but do want to point out that

your reference to Kang Xi Zi Dian being from Ming Dynasty is incorrect. Kang Xi

is an emperor of Qing Dynasty. The dictionary was printed in Qing, not Ming,

Dynasty.

 

Mike L.

 

Shinjiro Kanazawa <acupunsk wrote:

According to the oldest dictionary, Suo Wen Zi Jie by Xu Shen in 80 AD?, ?œXu

is a big hill. North of the Kun-lun (mountains) is called Kun-lun Xu.??Here, the

word ?œhill (qiu)??actually means ?œa basin.??The north of the Kun-lun

mountains, the Tarim Basin locates. The basin meant to the ancient Chinese, ?œan

empty prairie (kong-kuang) and emptiness (kong-xu).??It means there is a hint of

a strech.

The same dictionary says " Shi is Fu (wealth). " (The note says " goods are filling

the house. " ) It has a hint of a filling action.

The Ming Dynasty dictionary, Kang-xi Zi-dian in 1761 says ?œXu is Kong-xu

(emptiness, void, hollowness, vacancy).??There is a hint of an open space.

It's note says " Shi is man (to fill up), chong (to suply), an antonym of Xu. "

For me the word ?œvacuity, vacuus??has hints of a closed space and a physical

sucking action, which the original word never had.

Do not both " repletion " and " excess " have a hint of an " overly-done " meaning?

The word " Xu Shi " appears in Chapter 25 the first time in the Huang-di Nei Jing

Su-wen. Zhang Zhi-cong noted, " Xu-shi is ebb and flow of human Yin-yang. "

Shinjiro

 

Notes:

My Suo Wen Zi Jie is a reprinted copy by Quan-guo Ge Shu-ju (Taiwan) in 1992.

My Kang-xi Zi is a reprinted copy by Zhong-hua Shu-ju in 1958

My Huang-di Nei Jing Su-wen is a copy of With Combined Notes of Ma and Zhang,

printed first time in 1910, copied in Taiwan.