三峡
Sān​xiá

Three Gorges

三 sān three

Three horizontal strokes, representing the number three.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

参仨闫參

Meaning (2 of 4 verified)

参叁仨參

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsams.rum (*s.r- > s-; infl. by 四 *s-?)three
samHs.r[u]m-s (*s.r- > *s-, infl. by 四 *s-?)three times

說文解字

《說文》：“三，天地人之道也。从三數。弎，古文三从弋。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.51
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

峡 xiá gorge Simplified

The space between 夹 two mountains 山; 夹 also provides the pronunciation

Components

山
山 Meaning component
shān mountain
夹
夹 SoundMeaning component
jiā, jiá be wedged or inserted between, pressed from two sides

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

峽 xiá gorge Traditional

The space between 夾 two mountains 山; 夾 also provides the pronunciation

Components

山
山 Meaning component
shān mountain
夾
夾 SoundMeaning component
jiā, jiá be wedged or inserted between, pressed from two sides

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthɛpN-kˤ<r>epmountain pass (not in GSR)
Zhengzhangɡreːb
Unicodehæp

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang