禪

Translingual

Han character

禪 (Kangxi radical 113, 示+12, 17 strokes, cangjie input 戈火口口十 (IFRRJ), four-corner 3625₆, composition ⿰礻單)

Descendants

• 禅

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 846, character 36
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 24835
• Dae Jaweon: page 1267, character 26
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2408, character 10
• Unihan data for U+79AA

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 禪
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *djan, *djans) : semantic 示 + phonetic 單 (OC *taːn, *djan, *djanʔ, *djans).

Etymology

Pronunciation 1 is short for 禪那, which is a borrowing from Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna, “dhyana”).

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

禪

1. (Buddhism) dhyana; deep meditation; contemplation
2. Buddhist doctrine; Buddhist teachings
3. relating to Buddhism; Buddhist; thoughtful; philosophical

Compounds

Descendants

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

禪

1. (obsolete) to offer sacrifices to nature

   See also: 封

   • 封於泰山，禪於梁父。封禪之王，七十二家。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     封于泰山，禅于梁父。封禅之王，七十二家。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Guanzi, 5^th century BCE to 220 CE

     Fēng yú Tàishān, Shàn yú Liángfǔ. Fēngshàn zhī wáng, qīshí'èr jiā.

     Some sevety-two kings performed the Feng sacrifice on Mount Tai and the Shan sacrifice on Liangfu (translation based on Rickett, 1998)

   • 是以封泰山而禪梁甫，朝諸侯而一天下。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     是以封泰山而禅梁甫，朝诸侯而一天下。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 《大戴禮記》 Records of Ritual Matters by Dai the Elder, Late Western Han

     Shìyǐ fēng Tàishān ér shàn Liángfǔ, cháo zhūhóu ér yī tiānxià.

     So he offered sacrifices to Heaven at Mount Tai and offer sacrifices to Earth at Liangfu; he gathered the various princes and united All under Heaven.

2. to abdicate and pass the throne to someone

   • 孔子曰：『唐虞禪，夏后、殷、周繼，其義一也。』 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     孔子曰：『唐虞禅，夏后、殷、周继，其义一也。』 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     Kǒngzǐ yuē: ‘Tángyú shàn, Xiàhòu, Yīn, Zhōu jì, qí yì yī yě.’

     Confucius said, "Tang and Yu resigned the throne to their worthy ministers. The sovereign of Xia and those of Yin and Zhou transmitted it to their sons. The principle of righteousness was the same in all the cases."

3. to succeed; to replace

Compounds

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

禪

1. name of an ancient state

References

• “禪”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names, kyūjitai kanji, shinjitai form 禅)

1. dhyana; deep meditation; contemplation

Readings

• Go-on: ぜん (zen)
• Kan-on: せん (sen)
• Kun: しずか (shizuka, 禪)^{←しづか (siduka, 禪, historical)}; ゆずる (yuzuru, 禪る)^{←ゆづる (yuduru, 禪る, historical)}

Korean

Hanja

禪 • (seon) (hangeul 선, revised seon, McCune–Reischauer sŏn, Yale sen)

1. Zen

Vietnamese

Han character

禪: Hán Nôm readings: thiền, thiện, thuyền, xèng

1. Dhyana
2. Zen Buddhism