Additional information about 氛
說文解字: 【氛】，祥气也。从气、分聲。 【符分切】 【雰】，氛或从雨。
- Criteria
- AIR
[ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]
[COMMON/RARE]
[GENERAL/SPECIALISED]
[IMMOBILE/MOBILE]
1. Fēng 風 "wind" is primarily air-in-motion, but does sometimes seems to refer to what we would call "air", as in ZHUANG 1.
CONCRETE, [MOBILE!]; [[COMMON]]
2. Qì 氣 "ether" is typically more abstract than English "air" and refers to constitutive energies underlying both air and wind as well as fog, dew, rivers, mountains and so on. The word is also the standard word for "breath".
[ABSTRACT]; [[COMMON]]
3. Fēn 氛 usually refers to vapour as manifestation of auspicious or inauspicious occurrences, and the word is marginal in this series.
[SPECIALISED]; [[RARE]]
NB: The abstract notion of "air" as such is not currently focussed on in early Chinese literature.
- ENERGY
1. The most general current word for material vital cosmic energies of any kind is qì 氣.
2. Yīn 陰 "dark female energies" and yáng 陽 "bright male energies" are the two main categories of vital cosmic energies increasingly introduced from late Warring States times onwards.
3. Jīng 精 "subtle vital essence" refers to the crucial subtle variety of the material vital cosmic energies.
4. Shén 神 refers to the ultimately refined quintessential subtle variety of the material vital cosmic energies, and the degree of subtlety is superior to that of the jīng 精 "subtle vital essence".
5. Líng 靈 refers to the almost disembodied supernatural subtle variety of the vital cosmic energies that define life on earth.
6. Jīn 祲 is a rare archaic word which refers primarily to inauspicious cosmic energies manifesting themselves as evil omens, but the word is occasionally used generally in a neutral sense.
7. Fēn 氛 is a rare word which refers primarily to inauspicious or auspicious cosmic energies, but the word is occasionally used specifically in the negative sense.