<p>I am currently studying the character 冎 and I found two interesting facts about it (<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%8E" rel="nofollow noreferrer">reference</a>):</p>
<ul>
<li>It is the pictographic protoform of 骨</li>
<li>It is an ancient form of 剮</li>
</ul>
<p>So from the facts above, I made a chronological summary of the history of 冎, 骨, and 剮 below:</p>
<ul>
<li>冎's original meaning was &quot;bone&quot;</li>
<li>It was then borrowed to express the meaning &quot;to cut flesh off from bone; lingchi&quot;</li>
<li>Because of the above reason, a new character i.e. 骨 was created to carry the original meaning &quot;bone&quot;</li>
<li>Somehow (I am not sure) people felt that a new character was necessary to express &quot;to cut flesh off from bone; lingchi&quot;, so they created 剮</li>
<li>Nowadays people prefer using 剮 but 冎 is still sometimes used as an alternative form</li>
</ul>
<p>Because I am still a beginner Chinese learner, I am not sure if any point I made above is correct. So I would like to hear your feedback. Thank you very much :-)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-05-25T10:31:07.950Z
I believe you have the right idea, which is probably why you're not getting any actual answers. The only thing I'd say is that I can't find any actual usage of 冎 to represent the word **guǎ** (*cut flesh off from bone; lingchi*); this seems to be taken from the [*Shuowen*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi) definition without corresponding excavated or received text examples.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-06-03T14:28:21.420Z
@dROOOze I see! Thank you very much for your foodback! :D
mawgumelar
<characters><glyph-origin>
What is 冎's history and its relation to 骨 and 剮?
# What is 冎's history and its relation to 骨 and 剮?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-05-18)

I am currently studying the character 冎 and I found two interesting facts about it ([reference](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%8E)):

* It is the pictographic protoform of 骨
* It is an ancient form of 剮

So from the facts above, I made a chronological summary of the history of 冎, 骨, and 剮 below:

* 冎's original meaning was "bone"
* It was then borrowed to express the meaning "to cut flesh off from bone; lingchi"
* Because of the above reason, a new character i.e. 骨 was created to carry the original meaning "bone"
* Somehow (I am not sure) people felt that a new character was necessary to express "to cut flesh off from bone; lingchi", so they created 剮
* Nowadays people prefer using 剮 but 冎 is still sometimes used as an alternative form

Because I am still a beginner Chinese learner, I am not sure if any point I made above is correct. So I would like to hear your feedback. Thank you very much :-)

**Tags:** characters, glyph-origin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I believe you have the right idea, which is probably why you're not getting any actual answers. The only thing I'd say is that I can't find any actual usage of 冎 to represent the word **guǎ** (*cut flesh off from bone; lingchi*); this seems to be taken from the [*Shuowen*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi) definition without corresponding excavated or received text examples.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I see! Thank you very much for your foodback! :D  

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## 0 answers

