The Metonymical Meaning “Civilian” of “Baiyi”

The metonymical meaning "civilian" of "baiyi(白衣)" may be related to ancient civilian clothing characteristics, and it also has an internal relation with the clothing color contrast between the officials and the civilians, as well as the "blank and empty" meaning of "white". In addition, the reason why the "civilian" meaning of "baiyi" can break through the barriers of Han cultural conventions and be widely used may be related to the inspiration and influence of "secular" meaning of "baiyi" in the foreign buddhist context. According to the statistics and analysis of relevant examples, we speculate that the metonymical meaning "civilian" of "baiyi" appeared in the late Han Dynasty. In the sentence "Gongsun Hong, baiyi, finally reached the official rank of San Gong by studying The Spring and Autumn Annals."(公孙弘以春秋白衣为天子三公)in Rulin Biography of Records of the Historians, it is more likely that the "baiyi" is a kind of mistake of "ziqi(自齊)" which appeared in the late Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin dynasties.