續一切經音義 4.76

4.76

Lotus blossom (handan 菡萏: the first character has the fanqie [reading] hu + gan [han]. The second character has the fanqie [reading] dan + gan [dan]. The "Treatise on Plants" in the Erya states: "The lotus (he) is the fuqu; its blossoms are the handan." The Mao Commentary on the Classic of Poetry states: "Before opening it is called furong; once opened it is handan." The Shuowen [jiezi] says: "菡 takes 'grass' [as semantic component] and han as phonetic, pronounced han; 萏 takes 'grass' [as semantic component] and xian as phonetic, pronounced xian." In the text of the scripture, the two forms 菡萏 are both erroneous).