形象
xíng​xiàng HSK3

image

形 xíng, xing form, shape

Phonosemantic compound. 彡 represents the meaning and 井 represents the sound.

Components

井
井 Sound component
jǐng well
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 井 than it was in ancient scripts.
彡
彡 Meaning component
shān, xiǎn hair

Three lines depicting a shape

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartheng[ɢ]ˤeŋ form, shape

說文解字

《說文》：“形，象形也。从彡，幵聲。”

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)

象 xiàng elephant

Pictograph of an elephant.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Iconic (3)

为為爲

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

像橡蟓

Simplified (1)

为

Meaning (1)

豫

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzjangXs.[d]aŋʔ elephant

說文解字

《說文》：“象，長鼻牙，南越大獸，三年一乳。象耳牙四足之形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.740
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)