shānyán

a boundary

An earthen  roadblock 

Components

Meaning component
earth
Meaning component
yán delay

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhanghljan
lan

說文解字

八方之地也。从土延聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica