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ℬ㏒.㎈ℓℯℛ.ⓧⓨℤ

Chinese character of the day 倀

chāng ㄔㄤ (倀) : the ghost of somebody devoured by a tiger, who urges the tiger to devour others : fantome d'une personne qui a été dévorée par un tigre, qui aide ensuite le tigre dévorer d'autres

I accidentally came across this character while evaluating the KEY Chinese-French dictionary for Pleco (hence the French translation above).

Origin #

It is most likely only used as 倀鬼 or 虎倀, and it's clear that this ghost has some sort of story behind it. There is a chéng:

为虎作倀 (為--倀) wèizuòchāng ㄨㄟ`ㄏㄨˇㄗㄨㄛ`ㄔㄤ

which is an idiom meaning to help a villian do evil, or to be an accomplice to an evildoer. I had assumed that it would imply some form of bitterness, with the dead guy wanting others to also get killed by the tiger. That is not actually part of the meaning and, in the story, helping the tiger was not the ghost's idea.

Anyway, using this word might get you a few blank looks, so try and forget it 😜.

guǐ ㄍㄨㄟˇ : ghost 👻

我们家是**鬼屋**啊? Our house is haunted? From Totoro (龙猫)
我们家是鬼屋啊? Our house is haunted? From Totoro (龙猫)

ㄏㄨˇ, 老虎 lǎo ㄌㄠˇㄏㄨˇ : tiger 🐯

恶人 èrén ㄜ`ㄖㄣˊ : evildoer

yǎo ㄧㄠˇ (齩) : bite, snap at. In the story, we have 被老虎咬死的人 - the person bitten to death by the tiger : bark (dog)