祝僇祝鲠

祝僇祝鲠 in English

zhù lù zhù gěng: (idiom) An ancient imperial expression of respect and care for the elderly: retired elders were invited to eat and drink, while specially appointed attendants prayed that they would not choke.

Character breakdown

祝 zhù to pray for
僇 lù to despise
鲠鯁 gěng to choke on a piece of food

How it used to be written

祝

Oracle bone script 商
Clerical script 東漢
See all 18 forms

僇

Small seal script
Clerical script 西漢
See all 3 forms

鲠

These are the forms of 鯁, the traditional character: 鲠 is a twentieth-century simplification, found in no ancient corpus.

Small seal script

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

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