shèn

marine monster which can change its shape

Components

Sound component
chén early morning
Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

mollusk

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyinX[d]ərʔclam, oyster
Zhengzhangdjɯns
djɯnʔ
djins
Unicodezhin

說文解字

雉入海,化爲蜃。从虫辰聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica