咒文 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

zhòuwén

incantation

zhòu curse

Derived from 祝, with the 礻 (show) component being replaced by 口 (mouth) component when the meaning extended to "curse". Depicts a kneeling person (卩) opening their mouth (口) to pray for disaster to happen on someone.

Components

口 Meaning component

kǒu, kou mouth

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

卩 Iconic component

jié person kneeling

Modern form looks like 几.

Change in form

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

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	tjus

Sources

Character origin: Chinese Language Stack Exchange 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang

wén writing

Pictograph of a man with writing (possibly a tattoo) on his chest. In later scripts the writing was abbreviated to a dot or omitted altogether.

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 Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (3 of 13 verified)

这纹玫坟蚊雯紊汶玟紋閔忞炆

Meaning (2 of 8 verified)

斑斌彦斐闵斓彥斕

Simplified (2)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjun	mə[n]	ornate

說文解字

《說文》：“文，錯畫也。象交文。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.706
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)