How to read the Cao Wei general 毌丘儉:
Kangxi dictionary has a lengthy discussion about the pronunciation and meanings of logogram “毌” with many other logograms . It is not clear which logogram refers the meaning or phonetics. (說文解字) has that logogram read as Kwan “冠, 貫” meaning crown. Oracle bone script (甲骨文) and bronze script (金文) appears to be a jewel on the crown. Yet, other dictionaries and scriptures read it differently. Scholars had been debating about the etymology.
The logogram “毌”is one of many PLCs referring the steppe nomad commonly being described with logograms such as “馬/牟;móu mù mào” and as seen in the battle of Muye(坶野 or 牧野之戰). It was used as a radical of logogram “貫, 本貫” and referring the leader “西王毋” and leader of Old Joseon (天毒) as seen in the Shanhaijing.

Followings are the brief points:
One of the Confucian classics (論語 學而) used the logograms “而, 毋, 無” many times . The phrase “無友不如己者” was recorded as “毋友不如己者” in the “論語 子罕” which makes interpretation more complicated . By reading over classics, the logograms“毋, 無,木, 莫” had been recorded as ““勿; wù” which has same phonetics of “毋; mu” by Korean. It is apparent that the logogram “毋” has a meaning of [High, above, same as the logograms 禹, 魏] embedded.
Ban Gu 班固 (AD 32–92) had cited a phrase of Shijing “毋封靡於爾邦” that is recorded as “無封靡于爾邦” in the current Shijing. He also left [毋追夏后氏之道. 毋追者，言其追大也] that means logogram “毋” has been used Xia period. It refers leader Khan“大”, the leader .
The Records of the Three Kingdoms (三國志 鍾會傳) has the phrase “注易，往往有高麗言”, that is “Now and then Goguryeo word phonetic loan characters in the book of changes” . Yes, indeed! Lots of logograms are PLCs of current Korean language.

As any other phrase in the classics, the phrase “毌丘儉” is a phrase of combined logograms with PLCs and PSMCs. The first one “毌” referring the nomadic tribe. The second one “丘” is a semantic description meaning valley or village. The third one “儉” is a compound logograms of [亻，僉=𠑲, 咸也，皆也] that means a person chosen by all leaders from the four corners. It is the logogram that was made for the first King of the kings (《虞書》曰：僉曰伯夷) whom Korean call (Dangun 단군) Wang gum.
The phrase “毌丘儉” means the leader in the village of nomad.

January 18, 2020