續一切經音義 1.36

1.36

Viper and scorpion (蝮蠍: the upper character has the fanqie 芳伏. The Erya says: "The fù-huǐ is three inches wide, its head as large as a thumb." Guo Pu's commentary says: "Like a person's thumb." The Shiji says: "If a viper bites the hand, sever it." The lower character has the fanqie 軒謁; it is a widespread word throughout the four quarters. The Shuowen says: "A venomous creature, its tail curling upward." The Yupian says: "A scorpion (蠆). Formed with [the semantic element] chóng (虫) and [the phonetic element] xiē (歇); a phono-semantic character." In the sūtra text it is written as 蝎, pronounced hè, meaning a wood-boring grub (蛣崛), which deviates from the meaning of 'viper and scorpion').