tax

Money  used to raise an army  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
bèi sea shell
SoundMeaning component
military

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpjuHp(r)a-stax; ballad
Zhengzhangmpas
Unicodebiò
biò

說文解字

斂也。从貝武聲。

Sources

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

tax Simplified

Money  used to raise an army  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
bèi sea shell
SoundMeaning component
military

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode