釐
- to govern, to regulate;
- to make auspicious, to cut grass;
Etymology
Phono-semantic compound:
里 (리, “village, unit of distance”) — semantic, connected to land or governance.
𠩺 (쪼갤 리, phonetic) — phonetic element, giving the sound 리.
Usage in Korean
Rarely used in modern Korean except in classical/literary contexts.
Appears in historical texts (e.g., 사기), often with the reading 희 (喜/僖) due to avoidance of personal names (피휘).
Words that derived from 釐
Additional notes
In Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian (史記), 釐 is frequently used as a substitute for 喜/僖, read as 희, because Sima Qian avoided writing his grandfather’s name Sima Xi (司馬喜) (피휘 tradition).
This makes 釐 notable as one of the classic examples of name taboos influencing written characters in Chinese historiography.
In some classical administrative texts, 釐 carried the sense of ordering, governing villages/land (里), reflecting its semantic base.
- 十大一田土 (JKMWG)
- ⿸ 𠩺 里
