Taxonomy of meanings for 帛:　　

Additional information about 帛

說文解字: 【帛】，繒也。从巾、白聲。凡帛之屬皆从帛。 【帛陌切】

Criteria
• STATIONARY
  

  1. The most common writing material in Warring States times was the jiǎn 簡 "bamboo strip".

  2. Also common was the dú 牘 "wooden tablet".

  3. Bǎn 板／版 was a larger and thicker wooden tablet than the dú 牘.

  4. Gū 觚 six-sided wooden tablet, typically used to record population registers and the like.

  5. Bó 帛 "thin silk for writing on" was extremely expensive and only used for special ceremonial purposes.

• CLOTH
  

  1. The general word for cloth is bù bó 布帛 "coarse or silk cloth".

  2. Bó 帛 refers quite generally to silk cloth. See SILK.

  3. Bù 布 refers quite generally to all kind of coarse cloth, typically made of hemp and the like, but the word is also occasionally used loosely as a general term for cloth including silk.

  4. Chī 絺 refers to fine linen or hemp cloth.

  5. Xì 綌 refers to coarse dolichos cloth.

  6. Sī 緦 refers generally to any kind of coarse cloth worn in periods of mourning.

• SILK
  

  1. The general word for any kind of silk cloth it is bó 帛.

  2. Juàn 絹 refers to thin silk gauze.

  3. Zēng 繒 is close in meaning to bó 帛 with which it often forms a binome, but the word first became current in Han times.

  4. Sù 素 refers to to raw undyed silk cloth.

  5. Bì 幣 typically refers to silk insofar as it is used as currency or as a formal gift.

  6. Zī 緇 refers to non-shiny, matt, very darkish grey silk important in ritual garments.

  7. Liàn 練 refers to refined off-white glossy silk.

  8. Jián 縑 refers to double-thread thick silk.

  9. Tí 綈 refers to refined and washed double-thread thick silk.

• WARFARE
  

  1. The current general word for warfare is bīng 兵.

  2. Róng 戎 refers to military service or military action.

  3. Gān gē 干戈 (ant. yù bó 玉帛 "jade and silk") is a periphrastic way of referring to military affairs.

  4. Wǔ 武 "military affairs" (ant. wén 文 "civil affairs") refers not so much to battles and military action, but to the administration of military affairs in general.

Word relations
• Object: (SILK)衣/WEAR The current general word for wearing clothes or putting on clothes of any kind is yì 衣 (ant. tuō 脫 "take off"). 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (SILK)幣/SILK Bì 幣 typically refers to silk insofar as it is used as currency or as a formal gift. 2 Attributions
• Assoc: (SILK)皮/SKIN The general word is pí 皮 which refers to all aspects of the skin, typically skin of animals with its natural fur. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (SILK)竹/BAMBOO 1. The standard general current word for bamboo is zhú 竹, and the word usually refers to bamboo that is alive and growing. 1 Attribution