The word "half" is interpreted in Shuo Wen Jie Zi as: "Fenrui Jade." The original meaning of "ban" is to separate Ruiyu, Ruiyu is a token, so "ban" has a separate meaning. The shape of "plate" indicates the meaning of the word: the "king" on both sides represents two pieces of jade, with a knife in the middle, which divides the complete jade into two parts. The class mentioned in modern schools also comes from the original meaning of "class": the purpose of setting up a class is to divide students into groups.
"Ban Ma" is a lost horse, and this word is very common in China ancient books. For example, Yu Xin of the Northern Zhou Dynasty wrote "Mourning for the South of the Yangtze River": "Lost horses, lost wheels." Another example is Li Qiao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, "Send the Master Book": "Carrying a horse on your back is called breaking the flood."
Li Bai's Farewell to Friends describes the scene of seeing friends off. People should stay with each other, so should riding Ma Ziran, so it is called "Ban Ma". The leaving horses are screaming at each other, and they can't bear to leave, let alone people. "And my horse screams again and again" uses horses to express the deep affection between friends, and the concept is ingenious.
Shuo Wen Jie Zi did not accept the word "ban", which Guangyun interpreted as "refuting writing". The shape of "spot" is very similar to "spot" On both sides of the "spot" are two pieces of jade, and the "text" in the middle indicates the pattern, so its original meaning is the pattern on the jade, indicating the pattern and spot of everything. The word "zebra" appears less frequently in ancient literature than "Banma". The word "zebra" only appeared once in the whole Tang poetry and Song poetry, that is, in Su Xiang's "Giving Pengzhou the Right to Drive" in the early Tang Dynasty: "The oriole is in a hurry, and the zebra is in a hurry." But this "zebra" is not what we now call an African zebra, but a horse with patterns or spots.
In modern times, African zebras are known to us and introduced into domestic zoos, and the word "zebra" has gradually become a household name. However, due to the evolution of transportation, "Banma" withdrew from people's lives and gradually disappeared, only existing in ancient books.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that seeing a friend off is a masterpiece of Li Bai's poems, and it is often selected into various versions of Tang poetry appreciation anthology. The author must be careful not to mistake "Banma" for "Zebra". The author also suggests that the word "Banma" should be clearly annotated to let readers know what "Banma" was in ancient China.