Taxonomy of meanings for 伐:　　

  • 伐 fá (OC: bod MC: bʷiɐt) 房越切 入 廣韻：【征也斬木也又自矜曰伐房越切十四 】
    • CUT
      • VP[adN.]postVtpassivebe felled
      • vtoNcut down (trees), hew off (branches)
      • vtoNperfectiveget felled (trees etc)
      • vtoNfigurativefundamentally undermine; violently attackCH
      • without injuring>KNOCK
        • vtoNbeat, knock against (typically a drum, and ceremoniously) so as to produce a sound
        • figurative: inconsistent with>CONTRARY
          • vtoNfigurativebe in contradiction with
      • so as to injure mortally>KILL
        • vtoNOBI: to slay (somebody), to decapitate ritually
        • resulting dead body>CORPSE
          • nOBI 3: dismembered/beheaded human victim
      • large scale military campaign>ATTACK
        • nabactmilitary campaign against an enemy construed as being of inferior political status
        • nabautonymthe word 伐
        • vt(oN)launch a formal attack on a contextually determinate N
        • vt[oN]launch a formal attack
        • vt[oN]personal(of an individual rather than a state:) attack
        • vt+prep+Nattack Npl, launch formal attack on Npl
        • vtoNlauch an overt large-scale "punitive" military campaign against 
        • vtoNcausativecause (oneself) to be attacked
        • vtoNfigurativeattack　伐孔子之說
        • vtoNpassiveget attacked; be attacked
        • vtoNderivedlaunch a campaign againstCH
        • vt(oN)launch a punitive attack against the contextually determinate NCH
        • resultative: successful>DEFEAT
            • resulting useful social contribution>MERIT
              • nabactvisible achievement, manifest achievement
              • show pride in connection with>BOAST
                • vt(oN)boast about the contextually determinate N
                • nabpsychboastfulness
                • vibe boastful
                • vtoNbrag openly about, parade (one's good points)
                • vtoNpsychboast about (oneself)
        • so as to displace>REMOVE
            • figurative: object disease>CURE
          • CONSTELLATIONS
        • 伐 xie1 康熙字典：又、叶許竭切，音歇。【詩·商頌】韋顧旣伐。叶上截下桀。
        • 伐 fei4 康熙字典：又、叶扶廢切，音吠。【徐幹·西征賦】與游軫而西伐

          Additional information about 伐

          說文解字: 【伐】，擊也。从人持戈。一曰：敗也。 〔小徐本下有「亦斫也。」〕 【房越切】

            Criteria
          • CORPSE

            1. The general dignified term for a dead body is shī 尸 / 屍 often in connection with burial.

            2. Piǎo 殍 refers specifically to the dead bodies of those who have starved and who lie unburied.

            3. Sǐ 死 refers to the dead body of a deceased person in a neutral way, not necessarily in connection with burial.

            4. Fá 伐 is a a standard OBI word for decapitated human victims, but this usage became obsolete.

          • BOAST

            [COMMENDATORY/DEROGATORY]

            [EPISODIC/LASTING]

            [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

            [HIGH-DEGREE/LOW-DEGREE]

            [PRACTICAL/VERBAL]

            1. The commonest general word is probably jīn 矜 which refers to any degree of grandiloquence or bragging.

            [GENERAL], [VERBAL]

            2. Fá 伐 is an extreme form of bragging that clearly arouses negative reactions.

            [DEROGATORY], [EPISODIC], [HIGH-DEGREE], [VERBAL]

            3. Shī 施 is to show off, typically also through actions.

            [EPISODIC], [PRACTICAL!]

            4. Kuā 誇 refers to acts of grandiloquence not exclusively concerned with oneself. See EXAGGERATE.

            [EPISODIC], [VERBAL]

            5. Dàn 誕 tends to refer to boastfulness not as a concrete episode, but as a permanent feature of a person given to fraudulent self-aggrandising exaggeration.

            [LASTING], [VERBAL]

          • ATTACK

            [ASCENDING/DESCENDING]

            [CIVIL/MILITARY]

            [COMMENDATORY/DEROGATORY]

            [COVERT/OVERT]

            [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

            [LARGE-SCALE/SMALL-SCALE]

            1. The general word for any attack is gōng 攻 (ant. shǒu 守 "defend"; success kè 克 ) which can be used in a general sense referring to all kinds of attack, although that word does also have the specific meaning of a pointed campaign against a certain locality. (Note 戰必勝，攻必克。 )

            [GENERAL]

            2. Fá 伐 refers to a large-scale typically destructive formal attack by one state on another, typically formally announced, and with much beating of drums.

            [DESCENDING], [MILITARY!], [LARGE-SCALE!], [OVERT]

            3. Qīn 侵 refers to a less formal attack, typically unannounced beforehand, and typically aimed at taking the enemy's territory.

            [COVERT!], [DEROGATORY], [MILITARY], [SPECIFIC]

            4. Xí 襲 refers to a surreptitious attack, on the sly, without any self-righteous pomp.

            [COVERT+], [MILITARY], [SPECIFIC]

            5. Zhēng 征 refers to a typically punitive campain of some size against a state, construed as being of lower status.

            [COMMENDATORY], [DESCENDING], [MILITARY], [LARGE-SCALE], [OVERT]

            6. Tǎo 討 refers to a an extended explicitly punitive campaign by someone who construes himself as being in moral authority and entitled to uphold rectitude and morality through warfare. (Also figurative as in 天討有罪 "Heaven punishes those who are guilty". See PUNISH)

            [COMMENDATORY], [DESCENDING+], [MILITARY], [OVERT]

            7. Wéi 圍 refers specifically to military attack by surrouding the enemy.

            [MILITARY], [OVERT], [SPECIFIC]

            8. Kòu 寇 refers derogatorily to a wanton enemy attack.

            [DEROGATORY+], [MILITARY]

          • ARMY

            [ARCHAIC/CURRENT]

            [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

            [IMPERSONAL/PERSONIFIED]

            [MOBILE/STATIONARY]

            [LARGE/SMALL]

            1. Bīng 兵 "armed force" focusses on the weapons ready for use and may refer to any military grouping.

            [GENERAL]

            2. Jūn 軍 is a complete army as a unit, from Spring and Autumn times onwards, normally attached to an army camp. Complete parts of an army are always jūn 軍, rarely shī 師. Hence the expressions sān jūn 三軍, zhōng jūn 中軍, shàng jūn 上軍, xià jūn 下軍. An army is counted by the number of jūn 軍 in it, where each jūn 軍 is said to be 10 000 men, at least in the Qi system. Systems have varied in different states. For detals of the early history see the monograph by KOLB.

            [IMPERSONAL], [LARGE], [OFFICIAL]

            3. Shī 師 refers generally to troops a military force on a campaign, not necessarily a complete army. ZUO Ding 4.1.6 commentators quantify an armed force as consisting of 2500 men, in one exceptional context. One often speaks of 三軍之師, never of 三師之軍. One asks for troops 請／乞師, and not for jūn 軍 which would be asking for the whole army of a friendly state. The troops of another state one uses are always shī 師 (e.g. 衛人以燕師伐鄭 ), one's own troops can be described as jūn 軍 or shī 師 almost indifferently. One offers food to the enemy shī 師, not to their jūn 軍. (HF 23.27:01) There are ruì shī 銳師 "crack troops" but no ruì jūn 銳軍 "crack army". Similarly, 楚師之良. The shī 師 may be said to hear about something 師聞之, not the jūn 軍.

            [GENERAL], [MOBILE], [PERSONIFIED!]

            4. Lu# 旅 is an archaic word for armed forces in any combatant or non-combatant function, and in ZUO Ding 4.1.6 it is quantified to consist of 500 men, and.

            [ARCHAIC], [SMALL]

            5. Duì 隊 is common in Han texts for a division in the army, the size of this division could vary, but did not exceed the hundreds. SEE ALSO BATALLION

            [SMALL]

          • CUT

            1. The commonest general word for "cut" is ancient Chinese kat, modern reading gē 割.

            2. Qiē 切 is to cut into pieces.

            3. Duàn 斷 is to cut a part off a whole.

            4. Zhǎn 斬, fá 伐, zhuó 斫, zhuó 斲 describe the violent hacking off of a part from a whole.

            5. Shān 芟 is to cut grass or shrubs.

            6. Pī 披 "pare" refer to the treatment of surfaces of objects by cutting into them to produce smoothness of surface or a pointed end.

            7. Pǒu 剖 refers to cutting into something so as to reveal its inner structure. See SPLIT

            8. Xiāo 削 typically refers to cutting something off so as to reduce its size.

            9. Jiǎn 翦 refers specifically to the clipping of something that grows on a living structure.

            NB: The size of the vocabulary in this field is extraordinary: over 70 wods are listed under this meaning.

          • MERIT

            1. The current general word for achievements of any kind is gōng 功.

            2. Láo 勞 refers to meritorious effort as typically resulting in meritorious results.

            3. Xūn 勛／勳 refers to outstanding contributions to the state and this word cannot refer to personal achievements.

            4. Fá 伐 refers to a manifest achievement which is there for everyone to admire.

            5. Jī 績 refers to results obtained, which in principle can be both positive and negative (we have gōng jī 功績 "positive results" as well as bài jī 敗績 "negative results").

            Word relations
          • Result: (ATTACK)滅/DESTROY Miè 滅 refers to the physical destruction of cities or states, and the word implies the use of external military force, and typically military resistance.
          • Object: (ATTACK)國/STATE The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows.
          • Contrast: (ATTACK)侵/ATTACK Qīn 侵 refers to less formal attack, typically unannounced beforehand, and typically aimed at taking the enemy's territory. [COVERT!], [MILITARY], [SPECIFIC]
          • Contrast: (ATTACK)取/ANNEX Qǔ 取 refers to successful annexation, typically of a city.
          • Contrast: (ATTACK)圍/ATTACK Wéi 圍refers specifically to military attack by surrouding the enemy. [MILITARY], [OVERT], [SPECIFIC]
          • Contrast: (BOAST)施/BOAST Shī 施 is to show off, typically also through actions. [PRACTICAL!]
          • Contrast: (ATTACK)襲/ATTACK Xí 襲 refers to a surreptitious attack, on the sly, without any self-righteous pomp. [COVERT+], [MILITARY], [SPECIFIC]
          • Contrast: (KILL)誅/EXECUTE The current general term for legal execution of a person condemned to death is zhū 誅.
          • Contrast: (ATTACK)反/ATTACK
          • Assoc: (ATTACK)征/ATTACK Zhēng 征 refers to a typically punitive campain of some size against a state construed as being of lower status. [DESCENDING], [LARGE-SCALE]
          • Assoc: (ATTACK)攻/ATTACK The generalword for any attack is gōng 攻 (ant. shǒu 守 "defend") which can be used in a general sense referring to all kinds of attack, although that word does also have the specific meaning of a pointed campaign against a certain locality. [GENERAL]
          • Assoc: (BOAST)矜/BOAST The standard word is chuī 吹 (opp. xī 吸 "breathe in") and this word can have human, animal as well natural subjects, and the word can also refer to the playing of wind instruments. [GENERAL]
          • Synon: (ATTACK)凌/ATTACK
          • Synon: (CONTRARY)反/CONTRARY The current word for being logically or practically opposed to something else is fǎn 反 (ant. tóng 同 "agree with, go along with"). xxx
          • Synon: (ATTACK)征/ATTACK Zhēng 征 refers to a typically punitive campain of some size against a state construed as being of lower status. [DESCENDING], [LARGE-SCALE]
          • Synon: (ATTACK)討/ATTACK Tǎo 討 refers to a an extended punitive campaign by someone who construes himself as being in moral authority and entitled to uphold rectitude and morality through warfare. (Also figurative as in 天討有罪"Heaven punishes those who are guilty". See PUNISH) [DESCENDING+], [MILITARY], [OVERT]
          • Synon: (CONTRARY)違/CONTRARY
          • Synon: (BOAST)矜/BOAST The standard word is chuī 吹 (opp. xī 吸 "breathe in") and this word can have human, animal as well natural subjects, and the word can also refer to the playing of wind instruments. [GENERAL]
          • Synon: (ATTACK)攻/ATTACK The generalword for any attack is gōng 攻 (ant. shǒu 守 "defend") which can be used in a general sense referring to all kinds of attack, although that word does also have the specific meaning of a pointed campaign against a certain locality. [GENERAL]