卫尉
wèi​wèi

commandant

卫 wèi guard Simplified

Simplified from 衛. Phonosemantic compound. 行 represents the meaning and 韋 represents the sound. The 行 component was deleted for simplification.

Components

韋
韋 SoundRemnant component
(surround a city), tanned leather

Remnant of 韋, the sound component in 衛.

衛
行 MeaningDeleted component
xíng, háng walk

Sources

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

尉 wèi, yù, yùn officer

Original meaning: to iron

Depicts a hand (寸) holding two stones over fire (火) to iron a person's (尸) back as a treatment for a disease. Based on the original meaning "to iron", now written as 熨. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

尸
尸 Iconic component
shī sitting person

Depicts a person sitting or squatting.

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two pieces of small elliptical stones.

火
火 Iconic component
huǒ fire

Modern form looks like unrelated 小.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 火 than it was in ancient scripts.
寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Depicts a hand.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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 (1 of 3 verified)

慰蔚熨

Iconic (1)

熨

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangquds
qud
Unicodeqiuə̀i

說文解字

《說文》：“尉，从上案下也。从、又，持火以尉申繒也。”

Sources

Character origin
林志強《《文源》評注》p.266黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3200
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

衛 wèi guard Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 行 represents the meaning and 韋 represents the sound.

Components

行
行 Meaning component
xíng, háng walk
韋
韋 SoundIconic component
(surround a city), tanned leather

Depicts feet walking around city walls.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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
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
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjwejH[ɢ]ʷ(r)a[t]-s to guard

說文解字

《說文》：“衞，宿衞也。从韋、帀，从行。行，列衞也。”

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)