蔑

In moral and philosophical usage, 蔑 conveys both moral blindness and willful disrespect—the act of negating worth or virtue in others.

Originally a pictographic-ideographic compound, later stylized as a phono-semantic compound.

Ancient form (甲骨文): depicts a person (人) with emphasized eyebrows (眉) being struck by a halberd (戈) — representing to cut down or insult a person to their face.

This vividly symbolizes disregard or contempt.

In Seal script (篆書), the form evolved: the upper part (emphasized eyes and brows) became abstracted, resembling the top of 夢 (꿈 몽), while the lower part retained the shape of 戈.

In Clerical script (隸書) and Regular script (楷書), the lower “person + halberd” element transformed into 戍 (지킬 수), producing the modern standardized form 蔑.

According to Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字):

「蔑，視不敬也。从戍，戍中有目。」

“蔑 means to look without respect; composed of 戍 with an eye inside.”

This reflects the sense of seeing with disdain, i.e. to look down upon.

Semantic evolution:

Literal: to look with disdain; to treat as unworthy.

Moral: contempt or arrogance toward others or moral law.

Derived: to insult, defame, or defile (moral or physical).

Simplified substitution: in modern Simplified Chinese, 蔑 is used as the simplified form of 衊 (“to stain, defile”).

蔑視 (멸시) — contempt; disdain; to look down on

毀蔑 (훼멸) — slander; defamation; to vilify

侮蔑 (모멸) — insult; humiliation

汚蔑 (오멸) — to defile; to dishonor

蔑視感 (멸시감) — a sense of being despised

Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典, vol. 1185):

「蔑，輕賤也。又視也。」

“蔑 means to despise or to look upon lightly; also, to look (with contempt).”

Mencius (孟子 · 梁惠王下):

「人蔑視之，則不恥也。」

“When others despise him, he feels no shame” — 蔑視 as to look upon with contempt.

Book of Han (漢書 · 韋賢傳):

「慢而蔑人，必取禍焉。」

“He who is arrogant and scorns others will surely bring calamity upon himself.”

Zhuangzi (莊子 · 山木篇):

「蔑人而自賢，非聖人之道也。」

“To despise others while thinking oneself wise is not the way of the sage.”

These usages emphasize that 蔑 is not only social arrogance but also a moral failing—the loss of reverence for others and, by extension, for Heaven’s order.

In Confucian ethics, 蔑 denotes the failure of 禮 (propriety) and 恭 (reverence)—a grave social vice.

In Buddhist texts, it can represent egoistic contempt (慢蔑), one of the inner obstacles to enlightenment.

The compound 蔑視 became the moral opposite of 尊敬 (존경), forming a key lexical pair in East Asian moral vocabulary.

Its structure, derived from the idea of “an eye that disrespects,” captures the essence of 蔑 — to see others as beneath one’s regard.

Thus, in both classical and modern thought, 蔑 stands as the symbol of pride that blinds respect, the spiritual opposite of reverence and humility.