sāi​yuān

profound and honest

sāi, sè stop up

Depicts two hands () stuffing various objects () into an enclosed space (). The (earth) component was added later.

Components

Iconic component
mián roof
Iconic component
gōng work
Iconic component
gōng work
Iconic component
gǒng two hands
Meaning component
earth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsojH[s]ˤək-s frontier
sojH[s]ˤək-s pass (n.)
sok[s]ˤək stop up, block (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“塞,隔也。从土,从。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1189-1190
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

yuān gulf Simplified

Simplified form of . Originally written as 𣶒, which depicted water inside of a deep pool. The left (water) component was added later.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

𣶒
yuān deep pool

Pictograph of water inside of a deep pool.

Sources

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

gulf Traditional

Originally written as 𣶒, which depicted water inside of a deep pool. The left (water) component was added later.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

𣶒
𣶒 SoundIconic component
yuān deep pool

Pictograph of water inside of a deep pool.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'wen[ʔ]ʷˤi[ŋ] abyss

說文解字

《說文》:“淵,回水也。从水,象形,左右岸也,中象水皃。,淵或省水。囦,古文从囗、水。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica