This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.
歹
In brief: what is not upright will be rectified
Common reading
Wrongdoing, evil deeds: “doing evil (为非作歹)”. Bad, evil: “He meant no harm (歹意).” The 歹 in 死 and 殘 was originally written 歺, commonly 歹; characters with 歹 mostly relate to death and injury, decay, calamity or ill omen. Shuowen Jiezi: “The remains of bones; from half of 冎.”
Design reading
Below a horizontal is the character 夕. 夕 is the image of the Dharma-ending period: in the Dharma-ending period the Great Law begins to be spread and the Fa-rectification begins; all that is not upright must be rectified, and what cannot be rectified must be removed. So when an evil (歹) intention arises, remind yourself: all this will be rectified; do not continue, or you will be removed.
Related characters
About this entry
This entry is taken from the edited manuscript of LI Xutong’s Exploring the Design Mysteries of Chinese Characters. The common reading follows traditional philology, the Shuowen Jiezi and other classics, and modern dictionaries; the design reading recovers the rationale of the character’s formation from the meanings of its strokes, the pairing of yin and yang, and the nine-palace layout, following the New Six Scripts. The premise of the design reading, that the generative mechanism of Chinese characters was designed, is an axiom of this system and differs from the evolutionary account usual in philology; the two readings are kept apart, as surface and depth.