坟墳;篆隶fén
【析形】形声字。古文字形从土,贲声。今简化字作“坟”,从土,文声。
【释义】《尔雅》:“大防。”(防,堤岸)本义为堤岸,水边高地。孔颖达疏:“坟,大防。”引申指封土隆起的坟墓。《礼记·檀弓上》:“古者墓而不坟。”春秋以前,中原地区的墓葬是在地面挖坑,尸体放入后把土坑填平,上面不封土堆,称作墓。而长江中下游的东南地区,因为地下潮湿积水,在地上用河卵石铺砌出一个墓室的范围,上放棺椁,然后用土沙把棺椁埋起来,形成大土堆,称为坟。春秋以后,中原地区在保留挖坑传统的基础上,吸收了南方地面上堆土的习俗,形成了既有墓穴又有土堆的墓葬。《说文》:“坟,墓也。”后泛指坟墓。
【shape analysis】It is the pictophonetic character.In Small Seal script,it is related to土 and sounds like the pronunciation of 贲(ben).
【original meaning】The embankment or waterside dike.The meaning was later extended to refer to tomb or grave.
Before the Spring and Autumn Period,the grave in Central China was a hole in the ground.After the body was put into it,the grave was filled up with soil,made even without mounds.People called it tomb.But in the southeast area of the middle and lower reaches of the Changjiang river,due to the wet soil and ground,ancient people paved cobblers on the ground and buried the coffin with sand and soil and formed a large mound,which was called grave.After the Spring and Autumn Period,Central China followed the tradition of digging hole,meanwhile,absorbed the tradition of forming a mound in the southern China,finally formed cemetery.