禳
sacrifice for avoiding calamity
Closest English meanings
pray·exorcise·avert by sacrifice
The Calligrapher — Dǒng Qíchāng 董其昌
Late-Ming theorist and running-script master who shaped later taste.
Ming calligrapher (1555–1636), master of running script/regular script — late-Ming connoisseur-critic of understated, misty elegance. Ming dynasty
Cultural Story
禳 was disaster management by ritual: when comets, eclipses or plagues threatened, priests performed 祈禳 — prayers and offerings to divert the harm — and the classics record diviners debating what could rightly be 禳解, ritually deflected, and what had simply to be endured.
Common words & phrases
- 禳灾 pray away disaster · avert calamity
- 禳解 avert by prayer · exorcise
- 祈禳 pray and sacrifice
Read the story behind the character
The rite persists at the folk margin: temple calendars sell 禳灾, disaster-averting, services; fortune-tellers prescribe a 禳解, ritual remedy, for a bad omen; grandma still 祈禳, prays to avert harm, when a grandchild’s horoscope sours. The doctors, she adds, keep their own appointments.
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