Taxonomy of meanings for 蒙:　　

Additional information about 蒙

說文解字: 【蒙】，王女也。从艸、冡聲。 【莫紅切】

Criteria
• BLIND
  

  [[CONGERIES]]

  1. Gǔ 瞽 is the standard word for blindness (not necessarily congenital) where a person has eyeballs, but where the eyesight is impaired, some say typically by the eye-lids leaving only a small opening. The word also has figurative meanings.

  2. Máng 盲 (ant. míng 明 "endowed with clear sight") became the standard word for blindness, but the word can apparently also refer specifically to colour-blindness in pre-Han times.

  3. Méng 矇 / 蒙 refers specifically to blindness as a result of glaucoma, but is also current in generalised meanings referring to reduced vision.

  4. Sǒu 瞍 refers ocasionally to blindness which is the result of atrophy or lack of eyeballs (as prototypically in the case of Music Master Kuàng 師曠 ), and this is an ancient elevated word to use.

  5. Miǎo 眇 refers to blindness on one eye because of near-sightnedness or strabismus; and in post-Han times the word came to refer to blindness in both eyes.

  6. Xuàn 眩 refers to non-congenital blindness, but the word is very often used metaphorically in the sense of "blinded, dazzled".

  NB: Xiá 瞎 is post-Buddhist, SANGUO.

• RECEIVE
  

  1. The current general word is shòu 受 (ant. jù 拒 "refuse to accept"; ant.* yǔ 與 "give"), which can refer to any concrete or abstract form of receiving or being exposed to.

  2. Chéng 承 (ant.* zèng 贈 "present formally") refers to the polite act of receiving something as a gift.

  3. Fèng 奉 and bǐng 稟 (ant.* cì 賜 "present formally to inferiors") refers to the polite act of receiving any concrete or abstract thing (including orders and the like) from a superior.

  4. Měng 蒙 is to be on the receiving end of a process, and the word hardly ever takes concrete objects.

  5. Nà 納 focusses concretely on the receiving something from the outside into some inside.

  6. Shōu 收 refers specifically to receiving what is due to one.

• UNDERSTAND
  

  1. The standard current and word for understanding something and knowing how to do something is zhī 知 (ant. mèi 昧 "not have the foggiest idea").

  2. Míng 明 (ant. měng 蒙 "have very confused notions about") refers to incisive clarity of insight.

  3. Tōng 通 (ant. hūn 昏 "be confused about") refers to comprehensive and thorough familiarity with a subject.

  4. Yù 喻 / 諭 (ant. àn 闇 "be in the dark about") typically refers to clarity achieved on the basis of an effort of articulation.

  5. Chá 察 and shěn 審 (ant. mí 迷 "be all lost when it comes to") refer to incisive clarity of understanding coupled with great awareness of the details of a matter.

  6. Jīng 精 (mào 眊 / 耄 "be completely stupid with respect to") refers to a subtle and thorough understanding of something.

  7. Shí 識 refers to familiarity with something concrete, but the word also refers to simple awareness, especially when negated.

  8. Biàn 辨 / 辯 (ant. huò 惑 "be al confused about") refers to discriminating and highly articulate specialised, often professional knowledge about something.

  9. Jué 覺 and the rarer wù 悟 are inchoative and refer to the coming to understand something.

  10. Wēn 溫 refers to the resulting close familiarity after long acquaintance with a subject.

  11. Wén 聞 (ant. wèi zhī wén 未之聞 "have never heard/learnt about any such thing") is sometimes used as a resultative verb meaning "come to understand something because one has been informed of it". But this usage is limited to the idiom wén dào 聞道 "hear about the Way".

  12. Xī 悉 and jìn 盡 refer to presumed completeness in knowledge.

• DARK
  

  1. The most current general word for physical shadowiness and obscurity is probably yōu 幽 (ant. míng 明 "bright"), but this word often has lyrical overtones of secluded peace.

  2. Míng 冥 (ant. guāng 光 "light"), hūn 昏 (ant. zhāo 昭 "bright") and the rarer mèi 昧 (ant. xiǎn 顯 "clear and manifest") refer freely to purely optical darkness and abstract obscurity.

  3. Xuán 玄 "very dark reddish-black" (ant. bái 白 "plain white") currently refers to mysterious obscurity of the abstract kind. See MYSTERIOUS

  4. Huì 晦 (ant. zhāng 彰 "plain and manifest") refers to obscurity, expecially of texts or of thoughts.

  5. Měng 蒙 (ant. yào 耀 "bright and clearly visible") refers to psychological dimness, obfuscation of mind.

  6. Yǐn 隱 focuses on the inaccessibility to discursive reasoning of what is mysterious.

  7. Àn 暗 / 闇 (ant. míng 明 "bright") can refer to darkness but most of the time this word actually refers abstractly to the benightedness of a ruler.

  8. Yīn 陰 "shadowy, shaded" (ant.* liàng 亮 "bright") describes the lack of light as contrasted with surrounding light.

  9. Ài 曖 is pervasive darkness as a general state, where mèi 昧 is darker than ài 曖.

  10. Hēi 黑 (ant.* hào 皓 "shiny and bright") is darkness imposed by the intrinsic darkness of pigment on an object. See BLACK.

  11. Yǎo 杳 is used in poetry as a general word referring to darkness.

  12. Wū 烏 (ant. hào 皓 "shining white") is quite rare and refers to a high degree of darkness that is without lustre not quite pitch dark.

• SUFFER
  

  1. The most general word referring to a person's being exposed to something is probably shòu 受 (ant. shī 施 "have an effect on, act upon"), which can take both desirable and non-desirable objects.

  2. Jiàn 見 tends to take verbal complements and tends to refer to a person being exposed to undesirable effects.

  3. Qǔ 取 refers to deliberate exposure to an action or exposure to something by one's own fault.

  4. Beì 被 tends to refer to exposure to undesirable effects from the outside.

  5. Zāo 遭 and yù 遇 refer to unexpected and unprovoked exposure to outside effects.

  6. Měng 蒙 often refers to deliberate exposure to negative outside dangers or effects, but the word also has a generalised use where it simply corresponds to shòu 受.

  7. Lí 罹 and its loan character lí 離 refer to innocently running into some trouble or encountering some sorrow.

  8. Xiàn 陷 "get trapped in" refers occasionally to a disastrous encounter with what turns out inescapable. See TRAP

• STUPID
  

  1. The dominant word is yú 愚 (ant. zhì 智 "clever; wise"), and the word refers to moral as well as intellectual obtuseness as well as practical ineptitude.

  2. Zhuó 拙 (ant. jié 捷 "nimble") refers to practical ineptitude.

  3. Chī 癡 (ant. yǐ4ng 穎 "very clever") refers to moronic clinical intellectual ineptitude.

  4. Lǔ 魯 and dùn 鈍 (ant. huì 慧 "clever") refer to boorish and rustic bluntness of sensibility.

  5. Bì 蔽 and měng 蒙 (all ant. cōng 聰 "clever"), refer to an appearance of stupidity due to limited access to information, a state of stupidity that is typically construed as remediable.

  6. Mèi 昧 and àn 暗 (ant. míng 明 "clear-minded") refer primarily to benightedness of mind and lack of an enlightened attitude, particularly on the part of a ruler or a person who should know better.

  7. Wán 頑 and lòu 陋 (both ant.* bó 博 "broadly civilised") add the nuance of stubbornness to that of stupidity as such.

  NB: Bèn 笨, āi 呆, shǎ3 傻, and chūn 蠢 are post-Han words for stupidity and silliness.

• COVER
  

  1. The current general word for any mode of covering something for any purpose or in any way is fù 覆. The covering agent can be animate or inanimate, but typically the purpose of the covering is protection.

  2. Bèi 被 is to cover all over, typically in order as to protect from outside impact of cold etc.. The covering agent is typically human.

  3. Bì 蔽 (cog. bì4 庇 "protect") is to cover so as to keep from physical or intellectual sight, and this may be said freely of animate and inanimate subjects to whom the covering effect is attributed.

  4. Yǎn 掩 / 揜 is an informal word which focusses on the deliberate act by a human, executed with his hand, which is designed to prevent something from being discovered or from getting in touch with other things.

  5. Gài 蓋 is to cover with a lid or the like, typically to protect not against damage but against intrusion of external things. See HIDE

  6. Méng 蒙 is typically and primarily to make something obscure by some action of hiding or covering it, often with paper or cloth.

  7. Jīn 巾 refers to covering something with a cloth.

  8. Zhē 遮 is an elevated term referring to covering up something so as to protect it against interference from the outside and to hinder physical access of hostile forces, and this covering may be by humans or by physical effects.

Word relations
• Assoc: (STUPID)童/BOY Tóng 童 by itself is an archaic word referring to a boy, but the term enters freely into non-archaic binomes. 1 Attribution
• Synon: (SUFFER)被/SUFFER Beì 被 tends to refer to exposure to undesirable effects from the outside. 1 Attribution