一切經音義 36.52

36.52

祆祠（上顯堅反本無此字胡人謂神明曰天語轉呼天為祆前賢隨音書出此字從示從天以別之下祠音寺滋反爾雅祠祭也白虎通祠者嗣也百神之廟皆曰祠何注公羊祠食也從示司示音祇）。

祆祠: The first character has the fanqie xian + jian (xiān). Originally there was no such character. The Hu people refer to deities as 'Heaven' (tian), and through phonetic shift pronounced tian as xian. Earlier scholars created this character in response to the sound, writing it with the 'altar' (示) and 'heaven' (天) radicals to distinguish it. The second character, ci, has the fanqie si + zi (cí). The *Erya* says: 'Ci means to offer sacrifice.' The *Baihu tong* says: 'Ci means to succeed (ci); shrines of all spirits are called ci.' He's commentary to the *Gongyang* says: 'Ci means food sacrifice; composed of the 'altar' (示) semantic and si (司) phonetic.' Shi (示) is pronounced qi.