封

封 (Kangxi radical 41, 寸+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 土土木戈 (GGDI), four-corner 4410₀, composition ⿰圭寸)

• 湗, 䋽(𰬭), 崶, 葑, 篈, 堼, 㜂, 幇, 㨍, 犎, 幫, 鞤

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 294, character 7
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 7426
• Dae Jaweon: page 581, character 21
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 504, character 14
• Unihan data for U+5C01

Ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意) and phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *poŋ, *poŋs): abbreviated phonetic 丰 (OC *pʰoŋ, “seedling”) + semantic 土 (“dirt”) + semantic 寸 (“hand”) – mark boundaries by planting trees. Compare 邦.

Originally 丰 (OC *pʰoŋ), depicting a tree seedling. Variants that added any combination of 土 (“dirt”), 又 (“hand”), 田 (“field”), 丮 (“kneeling person with hands stretched out”) appeared from bronze inscriptions onwards.

Area etymon (Schuessler, 2007). Compare Tibetan ཕུང་པོ (phung po, “heap”), Tibetan སྤུང (spung, “heap”), Lepcha ᰣᰦᰎᰪᰵ (a-pŭŋ, “a heap; a stock”), Mizo [Term?] (puŋᴴ), [Term?] (punᴸ, “increase; assemble”), Mizo vûng (vuuŋᴴ), vûn (vuunᴸ, “swollen”), Mizo vûng (vuuŋᴿ, “heap; mound”), Chepang भुङ्‌हसा (bhuŋh-, “to be burst or peak of activity (flowering, field work etc.)”). Compare also Khmer ពោង (poong, “protuberances/bumps on an animal's head”), Khmer សំពោង (sɑmpoong, “puffed up; swollen”).

邦 (OC *proːŋ, “country”) may be the same etymon (Wang, 1982, Schuessler, 2007).

封

1. (literary) border; boundary
2. (literary) to raise a mound
3. to close; to seal; to bind

   封閉／封闭  ―  fēngbì  ―  to close'; to seal off

   冰封  ―  bīngfēng  ―  to be frozen

   把罐子封上  ―  bǎ guànzi fēng shàng  ―  to seal the jar

4. to block (a website, a person on the Internet, etc.); to censor
5. envelope; wrapper

   信封  ―  xìnfēng  ―  envelope; letter

   利市封 [Cantonese]  ―  lai⁶ si⁶ fung¹ [Jyutping]  ―  envelope of a red packet

6. cover of a book

   封面  ―  fēngmiàn  ―  cover of a book

7. Classifier for envelopes, letters and mail. ⇒ all nouns using this classifier

   一封信函  ―  yī fēng xìnhán  ―  an envelope

8. to confer (a title) upon; to enfeoff

   • 湯封夏之後，至周封於杞也。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     汤封夏之后，至周封于杞也。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Tāng fēng Xià zhī hòu, zhì Zhōu fēng yú Qǐ yě. [Pinyin]

     Tang enfeoffed the descendants of the Xia dynasty; until the Zhou dynasty's time their fief was at Qi.

9. (literary, of emperors) to build an altar to worship heaven

   封禪／封禅  ―  fēngshàn  ―  to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth

   • 封於泰山，禪於梁父。封禪之王，七十二家。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     封于泰山，禅于梁父。封禅之王，七十二家。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: Guanzi, 5^th century BCE to 220 CE

     Fēng yú Tàishān, Shàn yú Liángfǔ. Fēngshàn zhī wáng, qīshí'èr jiā. [Pinyin]

     Some seventy-two kings performed the Feng sacrifice [to Heaven] on Mount Tai and the Shan sacrifice [to Earth] on Liangfu (translation based on Rickett, 1998)

   • 是以封泰山而禪梁甫，朝諸侯而一天下。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     是以封泰山而禅梁甫，朝诸侯而一天下。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 《大戴禮記》 Records of Ritual Matters by Dai the Elder, Late Western Han

     Shìyǐ fēng Tàishān ér shàn Liángfǔ, cháo zhūhóu ér yī tiānxià. [Pinyin]

     So he offered sacrifices to Heaven at Mount Tai and offer sacrifices to Earth at Liangfu; he gathered the various princes and united All under Heaven.

10. short for 封建主義／封建主义 (fēngjiàn zhǔyì, “feudalism”)
11. a surname

(Jōyō kanji)

1. to seal, to close

• Go-on: ふう (fū, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ほう (hō, Jōyō)

• (Tokyo) ふう [fúꜜù] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̟ː]

封 (eumhun 봉할 봉 (bonghal bong))

1. hanja form^? of 봉 (“letter, envelope”)

封 (eumhun 묻을 폄 (mudeul pyeom))

1. hanja form^? of 폄 (“close, hide, seal”)

封: Hán Nôm readings: phong

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.