一切經音義 31.147

31.147

Like a secondary rainbow (如蜺: the second character has the sound y- [藝] + -ì [𠔃] fanqie. Wang [Yi]'s commentary on the Songs of Chu says: 'A secondary rainbow (霓) refers to clouds having color that resemble a dragon.' Guo [Pu]'s commentary on the Erya says: 'The secondary rainbow is called the female rainbow.' The Hanshu yinyi says: 'When rainbows appear, the dominant one is the male, and the male is called hóng (虹); the dimmer one is called the female, and the female is called ní (霓). Each has two names.' The Shuowen says: 'The secondary rainbow is a curved rainbow; bluish-red or white; it is yin qi. It is formed with the insect radical (虫) and ní (蜺) as phonetic; it is also written as 霓').