守丧
shǒu​sāng

mourn

守 shǒu defend

Depicts a hand (寸) guarding a building (宀).

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

狩

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsyuwXs-tuʔ keep, guard
syuwHs.tuʔ-s territory in somebody's guard, fief

說文解字

《說文》：“守，守官也。从宀，从寸。寺府之事者。从寸，寸，法度也。”

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)

丧 sàng mourning Simplified

Simplified form of 喪. Depicts multiple mouths (吅) wailing to mourn the death (亡) of someone. 桑 and 亡 represent the sound.

Components

桑
桑 Sound component
sāng mulberry tree
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 桑 than it was in ancient scripts.
吅
吅 IconicSimplified component
xuān, sòng noise

Depicts multiple mouths wailing.

亡
亡 SoundMeaning component
wáng death
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 亡 than it was in ancient scripts.

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.107漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

喪 sàng mourning Traditional

Depicts multiple mouths (吅) wailing to mourn the death (亡) of someone. 桑 and 亡 represent the sound.

Components

桑
桑 Sound component
sāng mulberry tree
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 桑 than it was in ancient scripts.
吅
吅 Iconic component
xuān, sòng noise

Depicts multiple mouths wailing.

亡
亡 SoundMeaning component
wáng death
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 亡 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 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 Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsangs-mˤaŋ mourning, burial
sangHs-mˤaŋ-s lose; destroy

說文解字

《說文》：“喪，亡也。从哭，从亡，會意。亡亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.107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)