十二码
shí'èr​mǎ

12-yard

十 shí ten

A single vertical line, representing one set of ten. Analagous to the archaic characters 廿 (twenty) and 卅 (thirty). Possibly originally a picture of a needle, now written as 針.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (6)

协叶针汁針協

Meaning (4 of 5 verified)

什计丈赍計

Unknown (0 of 2 verified)

鸨鴇

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyipt.[g]əp ten

說文解字

《說文》：“十，數之具也。一為東西，丨為南北，則四方中央備矣。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.155
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

二 èr two

Two horizontal strokes, representing the number two.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 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 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

Meaning (4 of 8 verified)

些次再仁竺贰佞貳

Sound (1)

次

Simplified (1)

兰

Distinguishing (1)

亘

Iconic (1)

亙

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyijHni[j]-s two

說文解字

《說文》：“二，地之數也。从偶一。弍，古文。”

Sources

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

码 mǎ weight, number Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 石 represents the meaning and 马 represents the sound. Simplified form of 碼.

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone
马
马 Sound component
mǎ horse

Sources

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

碼 mǎ weight, number Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 石 represents the meaning and 馬 represents the sound.

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone
馬
馬 Sound component
mǎ horse

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmraːʔ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang