Additional information about 徂
說文解字: 【䢐】，往也。从辵、且聲。䢐，齊語。 【全徒切】 【徂】，䢐或从彳。 【𨖆】，籒文从虘。 〔小徐本籒文「 【𨖆】」在「 【徂】」之前。〕
- Criteria
- DIE
1. The dominant general word is sǐ 死 (ant. shēng 生 "be alive"), and this can refer to the death of plants as well as animals or men.
2. Bēng 崩 refers to the death of an emperor.
3. Hōng 薨 and cú 殂 / 徂 refers to the death of a senior official.
4. Zú 卒 is specifically the death of a common citizen, but occasionally also used to refer to the death of senior persons like dukes.
5. Piǎo 殍 and jǐn 殣 "(of common people) starve to death, die in the gutters" refer distinctly to the death of ordinary people.
6. Mò 沒 / 歿 (ant. cún 存 "survive") and zhōng 終 are abstract elevated, polite words to use about the death of a significant person.
7. Yì 殪 "get killed" is the result of violent action.
8. Yāo (old: yǎo) 夭, yǎo 殀 and shāng 殤 (ant. shòu 壽 "long-lived") refer to an early and not just untimely death.
9. Jí22 shì 即世 refers to the death of high-ranking personalities in the bureaucracy.
10. Wáng 亡 "cease to be" is a polite and periphrastic way of referring to death.
11. Xùn 殉 refers to the act of laying down one's life, dying for a cause.
NB: The periphrastic vocabulary of Chinese referring to death is extraordinarily large. I have more than 900 terms - if modern locutions gēbēr sǐ 咯嘣兒死 "die" are included.