續一切經音義 1.38

1.38

Giant softshell turtle and alligator (黿鼉: the upper character is pronounced yuán. The Shuowen says: "A large softshell turtle; the large ones are like cartwheels, the small ones like basins. It possesses spiritual power, can command aquatic creatures, bewitches people, and eats them." The lower character has the fanqie 唐多. The Shanhai jing says: "The Changjiang river has many alligators." Guo [Pu]'s commentary says: "It resembles a lizard, with scales; the large ones are over a zhang long, the small ones four or five feet." The Shuowen says: "A shelled aquatic creature. Formed with [the semantic element] mǐn (黽) and [the phonetic element] dān (𠹈) abbreviated. Mǐn is pronounced měng; 𠹈 is pronounced nà." In the sūtra text both characters are written below with 'turtle' (龜) as [元/龜] and 鼉, which are vulgar characters and incorrect).