伏

• Physical/Strategic: To crouch, lie prone, or conceal oneself. In military contexts, often refers to an ambush (伏兵), implying a state of predatory tension or readiness to spring.
• Submission and Power: Yielding, submission, or defeat; submitting to authority or the law (伏法).
• Technical/Medical: The suppression or "sinking" of an ailment or rebellious qi, following the logic of forcing something downward.

The glyph functions both actively and passively:

1. Active: To press down, subdue, or suppress.

2. Passive: Being subdued or forced into a prostrate position.

Distinct from 俯 (to bend at the waist or look down) and 匐 (the active motion of crawling); 伏 emphasizes the state of being prostrate or lying flat.

Fanqie reading: 扶富 房六; Tang-period reading: *bhiuk.

The primary ambiguity lies in whether a prostrate posture represents predatory readiness (hiding to attack) or total surrender (lying flat in defeat). The translator should determine if the "pressing down" is a strategic choice by the subject or a state imposed upon them.