瞞

Phono-semantic compound:

目 (눈 목) — semantic element, indicating eyes, sight, perception.

㒼 (평평할 만) — phonetic component, producing the sound mán and contributing the sense of covering / masking.

Thus 瞞 originally means “to cover the eyes,” - to blind, obscure, deceive.

In Korean, 瞞 (만) appears mainly in Sino-Korean literary, legal, or formal compounds relating to deception or concealment.

Deception / trickery:

欺瞞 (기만) — deception; trickery; to deceive

瞞騙 (만편) — to cheat or swindle

瞞心 (만심) — self-deception

Concealment / cover-up:

隱瞞(은만) — to conceal; to hide; to cover up

瞞報(만보) — false or concealed reporting

Classical-style expressions:

瞞天過海 (만천과해) — a grand deception; to trick even Heaven

瞞上欺下 (만상기하) — to deceive superiors and cheat subordinates

These forms are used in historical, legal, or academic writing in Korea.

Psychological/ethical connotation:

Because 瞞 involves blocking perception, it often carries a moral nuance:

- deception

- moral corruption

- dishonesty toward others or oneself

Idiomatic cultural influence:

The idiom 瞞天過海 (to trick even Heaven) became part of the “Thirty-Six Stratagems” (三十六計), representing deception executed on a grand scale.

Classical citations:

《後漢書·馬援傳》(Book of the Later Han)

「非直瞞上，亦復欺下。」

“Not only deceiving those above, but also cheating those below” — A moral condemnation of deception.

《南史·劉遵傳》 (Biography of Liu Zun in the History of the Southern Dynasties)

「瞞天過海。」

“To deceive Heaven and slip across the sea” — An early instance of the idiom meaning “to carry out a deception so great it seems to fool Heaven itself.”

《太平御覽·欺誑部》 (Taiping Yulan, Deception Section)

「瞞者，欺也。」

“瞞 means to deceive” — Basic lexical definition within encyclopedic tradition.

《資治通鑑·唐紀》 (Zizhi Tongjian - Tang Dynasty)

「士卒皆瞞而不言。」

“The soldiers hid it and said nothing” — 瞞 = conceal, keep secret.