一切經音義 29.5

29.5

Golden light 金光明 (For the first character, jin 金, the Shuowen says: “Gold is the chief of the five metals; it stays buried long without tarnishing, is refined a hundred times without lessening, and obeys transformation without breach; it is the element of the West; earth generates metal, hence it takes the radical tu 土 [earth], and the dots on both sides depict metal inside earth; the upper part is jin 今 for the sound.” Next, the character guang 光: the Shuowen says: “Brightness; above it takes huo 火 [fire], below it takes the ancient character for ren 人 [person]; it is an ideographic compound.” The lower character ming 明: the Shuowen says: “It derives from [囗@(儿/口)]; [囗@(儿/口)] depicts the window; the moonlight enters through the window, giving brightness; it is also an ideographic compound. Taking sun and moon (日 and 月) to make ming 明 is a later popular convention.” The character [囗@(儿/口)] has the fanqie: gui + yong).