建昌
Jiàn​chāng

Jianchang County

建 jiàn build

Depicts a hand setting up a wooden post (聿) at the corner of a building site (𠃊).

Components

聿
聿 Iconic component
yù writing brush

Depicts a hand setting up a post.

𠃊
𠃊 Iconic component
yǐn hidden area

Depicts the corner of a building site. Modern form looks like 廴.


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 Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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 Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Xin 9-23 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

Component uses

Sound (3 of 8 verified)

健键腱犍毽鍵踺楗

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjonH[k]a[n]-s set up, establish

說文解字

立朝律也。从聿从廴。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.136
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

昌 chāng, chàng prosperous

Original meaning: call loudly

Originally composed of 口 (mouth) and 日 (sun), representing a call in the morning to wake people up at sunrise to start working. Based on the original meaning "call loudly", now written as 唱. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

日
日 Iconic component
rì sun
口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

The modern form looks like 曰 (to speak).

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 9 verified)

唱倡猖娼菖阊鲳閶鯧

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

倡阊閶

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰjaŋ
Unicodechiɑng

說文解字

《說文》：“昌，美言也。从日，从曰。一曰日光也。《詩》曰：‘東方昌矣。’，籀文昌。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.536
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)