凝炼

凝 níng coagulate

Phonosemantic compound. 冫 represents the meaning and 疑 represents the sound.

Components

冫
冫 Meaning component
bīng ice

冫 is a component form of 冰.

疑
疑 Sound component
yí doubt

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagartnging[ŋ](r)əŋ (< uvular?)freeze, coagulate
Zhengzhangŋrɯŋ
ŋrɯŋs
Unicodengiəng
ngiəng

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

炼 liàn smelt Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound. Simplified form of 煉.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
柬
柬 Sound component
jiǎn letter

Shorthand derived from the cursive form of the traditional 柬 component.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

煉 liàn smelt Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
柬
柬 Sound component
jiǎn letter

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡ·reːns

說文解字

《說文》：“煉，鑠治金也。从火，柬聲。”

Sources

Character origin
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)