乾坤
qián​kūn

universe

乾 qián dry

倝 is used to represent the sound. 乙 is a distinguishing stroke.

Components

倝
倝 Sound component
gàn sunrise
乙
乙 Distinguishing component
yǐ second

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkan[k]ˤar dry
gjen[g](r)ar heaven; heavenly

說文解字

《說文》：“乾，上出也。从乙。乙，物之達也。倝聲。，籀文乾。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.959-960
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

坤 kūn earth

Phonosemantic compound. 申 represents the meaning and 土 represents the sound. Simplified form of 堃.

Components

申
申 Meaning component
shēn to extend
土
土 Sound component
tǔ earth

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhwon[kʰ]ˤu[n]earth (trigram or hexagram)
Zhengzhangkʰuːn
Unicodekuən

說文解字

地也。《易》之卦也。从土从申。土位在申。

Sources

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