Loss of voice with palsy · yin fei

At a glance

Pinyin

yīn fèi

Simplified

瘖俳

Literal

瘖 yīn — the voice is gone; 俳 fèi — the base text's graph for 痱, palsy. Read together, the name holds one illness in two halves: the tongue will not speak and the limbs will not move. The graph the base text writes is 俳, from 人, which on its own reads pái and means buffoonery; Zhang Jiebin argued in the Leijing that it is a scribal error for 痱, from 疒, and should be read fèi, and that reading is followed here. Wang Bing glosses it with a single word: 俳，廢也 — done for.

Shuowen

《說文解字》：瘖，不能言也，从疒音聲。痱，風病也，从疒非聲。俳，戲也，从人非聲——俳之本義為戲，此借為痱。「瘖」讀 yīn、**本篇3見**；「俳」讀 fèi、**本篇惟此一見，讀 fèi，不作 pái**；「奪」讀 duó、**本篇3見**；王冰注「俳，廢也」。