升华
shēng​huá

elevate

升 shēng ascend, rise

Pictograph of a spoon with something inside it. Spoons are used to lift things up.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 Qin 221-206 BC
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

Component uses

Sound (2)

陞昇

Meaning (2)

陞昇

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyings-təŋ 1/10th of a dǒu 斗
syings-təŋ rise (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“升，十龠也。从斗，亦象形。”

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)

华 huá magnificent Simplified

Simplified form of 華. 化 is used here to represent the sound. The bottom component is a remnant from the traditional character 華.

Components

化
化 Sound component
huà change
華
華 SimplifiedRemnant component
huá magnificent

Remnant from the bottom of the traditional character 華.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

哗桦烨骅铧

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

晔烨

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.554-555
Readings & variants
Unicode

華 huá magnificent Traditional

Original meaning: flower

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 𠌶 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flower", now written as 花. The meaning later shifted to "blossoming", "flourishing" and "magnificent".

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

𠌶
𠌶 SoundMeaning component
huā flower

Pictograph of a fully bloomed flower.

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

Character Evolution

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

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

驊樺嘩

Simplified (1)

华

Remnant (1)

华

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

曄

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)
hwaeN-qʷʰˤra flower (v.); flowery (adj.)
hwaeH[ɢ]ʷˤra-s [name of a mountain]

說文解字

榮也。从艸从𠌶。凡華之屬皆从華。

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.554-555
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)