The 'Chinese' Theory: For and Against

[Jorge_Stolfi]

There is an entry in the Shennong Bencaojing (SBJ) that has two instances of the character 血 = "blood".  That character seemed another good candidate for a crib.  I found one parag in the Starred Parags Section (SPS) that matched that entry fairly well, if asked my programs to look only for the four other cribs that I already had.  But there was no Voynichese word in that parag that could be the translation of both characters.

Then I noticed that in the pinyn reading of that entry the two 血 characters had different readings, one as xuè and the other as xiè.  I asked Google AI which was the correct reading. Here is the reply:

 You did not copy the pinyin incorrectly [...]

The character 血 is a polyphone (多音字) that has two standard Mandarin readings: the literary reading (xuè) and the colloquial reading (xiě). 

Because Shanghan Lun (伤寒论) / Jinui Yaolue formulas and symptoms are classical medical texts, the choice between these two readings depends on how the words are structured in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). 

1. 肠澼脓血 (cháng pì nóng xuè)

• Why it is xuè: In this phrase (which refers to dysentery with pus and blood), 脓血 ([i]nóngxuè[/i]) is a tightly bound, formal compound noun ("pus-blood"). 
  
  
• The Rule: In Mandarin, when 血 forms a stable, multi-syllable compound or technical/medical term (like 血液 [i]xuèyè[/i], 血管 [i]xuèguǎn[/i], or 充血 [i]chōngxuè[/i]), it almost always takes the formal literary reading xuè.
  

2. 下血赤白 (xià xiè chì bái)

• Why it is xiè (or colloquially xiě): In this phrase (referring to the passing of red and white stool/blood), 下血 is a verb-object construction where 下 act as a verb ("to discharge / pass down") and 血 stands alone as the direct object noun ("blood"). 
  
  
• The Rule: When 血 stands alone as an independent noun or functions as the object after a verb (like 吐血 tùxiě "to vomit blood" or 流血 liúxiě "to bleed"), native speakers naturally shift to the colloquial reading xiě
  

Sigh.  If my problem was not already hard enough...

All the best, --stolfi