牲

Domesticated livestock designated for ritual sacrifice. It typically functions as a collective category for primary sacrificial animals—most commonly the ox, sheep, and pig—rather than referring exclusively to cattle. Context is generally ritual, ancestral, or ceremonial.

Primarily a noun. It may function as a modifier (e.g., describing blood or hides), but it does not typically function as a verb.

Contrast with 畜 (//chù//): while 畜 refers to husbandry and utility (the animal as an asset), 牲 refers specifically to the animal's destination as an offering (the animal as a sacrifice). It is distinct from general terms for "animal" such as 獸.

Fanqie reading: 所庚; Tang-period reading: shræng.

Be alert for potential wordplay or thematic tension between the phonetic component 生 (meaning "life," "raw," or "birth") and the act of slaughter. If the glyph is used to describe a non-domesticated or wild animal, treat this as an outlier; it may indicate poetic extension or a scribal error.