The grapheme of the Chinese character “Xiao (owl)” has been studied by some ancient experts and contemporary scholars, and they have proposed two different viewpoints. Some hold an opinion that “Xiao” represents the head of a bird on a tree, while others propose that it expresses a bird on a tree. It is difficult to draw a final conclusion. Nevertheless, the present researches using the unearthed literature corpus and the handed down documents corpus to analyze the character form of “Xiao” show that it represents the head of a bird on a tree. In addition, worshipping “Xiao” and offering sacrifices of “Xiao” to Gods or ancestors in Shang Dynasty provide another evidence that “Xiao” represents the head of a bird on a tree. These materials also show that the motivation of word-making of “Xiao” was derived from the ancient event of offering sacrifices, in which the bird was dismembered and suspended on a tree on Summer Solstice Day.

1. “梟”字字形兩種說法評判
 2. “梟”字從鳥頭在木上的證明
 3. “梟”字造理據
 4. 結語 
References 
Abstract

• 祝昊冉(南開大學文學院) | Haoran ZHU