弘扬
hóng​yáng HSK7

promote

弘 hóng vast

Original meaning: loud sound

Phonosemantic compound. 弓 represents the sound and 口 represents the original meaning "loud sound". The meaning later extended to "great", "vast".

Components

弓
弓 Sound component
gōng bow
口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
Change in meaning
口 hints at the original meaning of 弘, "loud sound", which is no longer the most common meaning of 弘 in modern Mandarin.
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
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Sound (1)

泓

Meaning (1)

泓

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwong[ɢ]ʷˤəŋ vast

說文解字

《說文》：“弘，弓聲也。从弓，厶聲。厶，古文肱字。”

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)

扬 yáng raise, praise Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 𠃓 represents the sound. Simplified form of 揚.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

𠃓
𠃓 Sound component
yáng bright

Sources

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

揚 yáng raise, praise Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 昜 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

昜
昜 Sound component
yáng bright

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyanglaŋ raise

說文解字

《說文》：“揚，飛舉也。从手，易聲。，古文。”

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)