人生何处不相逢 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

rén, ren person

Pictograph of the side view of a standing person.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyin	ni[ŋ]	(other) person

說文解字

《說文》：“人，天地之性最貴者也。此籀文，象臂脛之形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.630
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

shēng, sheng life

Pictograph of a sprout (屮) emerging from the ground (一).

Components

屮 Iconic component

chè, cǎo sprout

Depicts a sprout growing.

Change in form

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

一 Iconic component

yī one

Used here to depict the ground.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (7 of 11 verified)

性青星省胜姓牲甥笙旌眚

Meaning (4 of 5 verified)

靑甤甦產産

Deleted (1)

产

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sraeng	sreŋ (MC srj- > sr-; or *s.reŋ ?)	bear, be born; live
	sraeng	sreŋ	fresh, raw
	srjaeng	sreŋ (or *s.reŋ ?)	bear, be born; live

說文解字

《說文》：“生，進也。象艸木生出土上。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.506漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

hé what

Original meaning: shoulder a burden

Depiction of a man carrying an axe on over his shoulders. The right side of the form was later phoneticized into 可. The current meaning "what" is a phonetic loan.

Components

亻 Meaning component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

Change in meaning

亻 hints at the original meaning of 何, "shoulder a burden", which is no longer the most common meaning of 何 in modern Mandarin.

可 Sound component

kě able to

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

荷

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ha	[g]ˤaj	what

說文解字

《說文》：“何，儋也。从人，可聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

chù, chǔ, chu place Simplified

Simplified form of 處. Phonosemantic compound. 夂 represents the meaning and 虎 represents the sound.

Components

夂 Meaning component

zhǐ, zhōng go

夂 is a component form of 止. Depicts a foot.

卜 Simplified component

bo fortune telling

Shorthand for the 虎 component in the traditional character 處.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

咎

說文解字

《說文》：“咎，災也。从人，从各。各者，相違也。”

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

bù, bu no

Original meaning: sepals

Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The modern meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (3 of 5 verified)

否杯钚罘盃

Simplified (4)

还环怀坏

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

否歪甭孬

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjuw	pə	not
	pjuw	pə	不律 writing brush (pron. in Wú 吳 ap. Shuōwén; E. Hàn)

說文解字

《說文》：“不，鳥飛上翔不下來也。从一，一猶天也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

xiāng, xiàng mutual

Original meaning: look at

Depicts an eye (目) looking at a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "look at". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to "compare" and "each other".