食 (식) means "to eat" and 此 (차) means "this," but what does 革 (혁) mean in the above sentence?
Besides meaning "leather" or "animal hide," 革 can also mean "to reform," "to remove," or "to expel (from office)," but can it also mean "instead"?
On Page 24 of "Du's Handbook of Classical Chinese Grammar," in the section explaining adverbs and modal verbs, 革食此 was one of the example sentences used to show how adverbs were placed before the verbs they modified in Classical Chinese. 革食此 (혁식차) was translated as "eat this instead," meaning that 革 was translated as "instead." Before now, I cannot remember ever seeing 革 translated as "instead," but words like 革新 (혁신), which means "reform" or "renovation," does seem to imply "instead," in that when you reform something,
instead of the old way, you try a new way. Has anyone seen any other examples of 革 being used to mean "instead"?
