一切經音義 35.156

35.156

Battle-axe (鉞斧: the upper has the fanqie [yuán yuè] (yuan-yue / yuè); originally and properly written 戊; the Shuowen says a large axe, under 戈 with [戉-戈] as phonetic, [戉-戈] being sounded jué; because copyists frequently confused it with 戊 and 己, earlier scholars added 金 to make 鉞 so as to distinguish it; Gu Yewang says an axe is a military weapon and arm; the Sima fa states: "The Xia held black axes"; the Shangshu says: "The king held the yellow battle-axe in his left hand"; investigating it, the yuè is a large axe, which kings bestowed upon the Grand Marshal to execute commanders holding tallies; a phono-semantic character).