伇
yì

to command

Original form of 役. Depicts a person (亻) being controlled by a weapon (殳). Based on the original meaning "to command".

Components

亻
亻 Iconic component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

殳
殳 Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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

說文解字

《說文》：“役，戍邊也。从殳，从彳。，古文役从人。”

Sources

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