蛮
mán HSK7

barbarians

Components

亦
亦 SoundSimplified component
yì also

Simplified from 䜌.

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

蠻 barbarians Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
䜌
䜌 Sound component
luán tie together

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmaenmˤro[n]southern foreigner
Zhengzhangmroːn
Unicodeman

說文解字

南蠻，蛇穜。从虫䜌聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)