嗣
sì

to inherit, to connect

Depicts inheriting knowledge and wisdom down to descendents through bamboo slips (冊). 司 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

This component possibly alludes to knowledge and wisdom that comes from the mouth.

冊
冊 Iconic component
cè book
司
司 Sound component
sī take charge of

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartziHsə.lə-s succeed, inherit

說文解字

《說文》：“嗣，諸侯嗣國也。从，从口，司聲，孠，古文嗣从子。”

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)