鯀
Gǔn

Gun, mythical father of Yu the Great

Original meaning: fishing line

Depicts a hand (又) holding a fishing line (玄) while catching a fish (魚), now written as 綸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

魚
魚 Iconic component
yú fish
玄
玄 Iconic component
xuán, xuàn black

Depicts a fishing line.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 玄 than it was in ancient scripts.
又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 又 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkuːnʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“鯀，魚也。从魚，系聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.821漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

鲧 gǔn Gun, mythical father of Yu the Great Simplified

Original meaning: fishing line

Depicts a hand (又) holding a fishing line (玄) while catching a fish (鱼), now written as 綸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

鱼
鱼 Iconic component
yú fish
玄
玄 Iconic component
xuán, xuàn black

Depicts a fishing line.

又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.821漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode