一切經音義 89.102

89.102

Literary talent (for the second [character 藻], z- + [l]ao [zǎo]; Kong's commentary to the Book of Documents says: “'Zao' is water grass that has patterns.” The commentary to the Mao classic of Poetry says: “'Zao' is a water vegetable.” Examining 'caizao' (talent and embellishment), it means a person's talent is like the patterns of aquatic plants. The Gujin zhengzi gives it as following 草 (grass) with 喿 as phonetic. 喿 is pronounced z- + [d]ao [zào]. The Shuowen gives it following 玉 (jade) as 澡, with the same meaning).