wū​li

inside the room

house, room

Depicts a yurt (𡉉) over a room ().

Components

𡉉
𡉉 SoundIconic component
què yurt

Depicts a yurt. 𡉉 also represents the sound. Modern form looks like .

Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𡉉 than it was in ancient scripts.
shì room

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 6 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Iconic (1)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'uwkqˤok (or *ʔˤok ?)house; roof

說文解字

《說文》:“屋,居也。从尸,尸,所主也。一曰尸象屋形;从至,至,所至止。室、屋皆从至。,籀文屋,从厂。,古文屋。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.677-678zi.tools
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

lǐ, li village Simplified

A village () is an area of land () where people have fields (). In simplified Chinese is also used to mean "inside", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character .

Components

Meaning component
tián field
Meaning component
earth

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
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 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

Iconic (0 of 1 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartliX(mə.)rəʔ li (measure of distance); village

說文解字

《說文》:“里,居也。从田,从土。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.913
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

li, lǐ inside Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
clothes

is a component form of .

Sound component
lǐ, li village

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartliXm.rəʔinside
Zhengzhangrɯʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang