一切經音義 7.123

7.123

Companions and peers (penglü 朋侶: [the upper word is pronounced with the fanqie] pu + hong [peng]. The Taigong Liutao says: 'The friends of friends are called peng 朋; the associates of peng are called dang 黨.' The Kaosheng says: 'Coming from the same master's school.' The Zishu says: 'Peng means peers; it was also a counting unit in ancient times; in antiquity cowries were used in trading, and five cowries made one peng. This is also a phonetic loan of the ancient character for phoenix (feng 鳳); using feng as a loan for peng is because when a phoenix flies, myriad birds follow it; hence the ancient character for phoenix was borrowed for pengdang (party/faction).' The Shuowen writes it 倗, where 倗 means to assist; it is categorized under person 人 and takes peng 朋 as phonetic. The lower word is [pronounced with the fanqie] li + ju [lü]. The Cangjie pian says: 'Lü 侶 means a pair (li 儷).' The Guangya and Yupian say: 'Lü means a companion.' The Gujin zhengzi states it is categorized under person 人 and takes lü 呂 as phonetic; li 儷 is pronounced li + di [li].).