Additional information about 坤
說文解字:
- Criteria
- EARTH
1. The current general term for the earth or land is dì 地 (ant. tiān 天 "Heaven").
2. Kūn 坤 (ant. qián 乾 is a metaphysical way of referring to Earth as an agentive principle.
3. Lù 陸 (ant. shuǐ 水 ) refers to land versus river or sea areas.
- FEMALE
1. The current general word for a female of any species is cí 雌 (ant. xióng 雄 "male").
2. Nu# 女 (ant. nán 男 "male") refers specifically to human females.
3. Pìn 牝 (ant. mǔ 牡 "male") refers to specifically to females of animals.
4. Zì 牸 refers to females of buffalo, but sometimes also of tiger, rhinoceros, or horse.
5. Mǔ 母 (ant. gōng 公 "male") refers to adult females of some species, including spirits. NB incidentally: Mǔ jī 母雞 is current, while mǔ niǎo 母鳥 does not seem to be found.
6. Kūn 坤 (ant. qián 乾 "metaphysically: male") is a metaphysical way of characterising things as belonging to the female realm. (NB incidentally and irrelevantly as a modern Chinese reflex kūn biǎo 坤錶 "women's watch".)
- SKY
1. The current word for the sky, and for Heaven, is tiān 天 (ant. dì 地 "earth").
2. Qián 乾 (ant. kūn 坤 "metaphysical: Earth") is a learned "metaphyisical" way of referring to Heaven.
3. Cāng 蒼 is a poetic word for blue sky, but the word is not apparently attested in pre-Buddhist texts.