朱熹
Zhū Xī

Zhu Xi

朱 zhū, shū red pigment

Original meaning: tree trunk

Pictograph of a tree (木) with a mark indicating where the trunk is. Based on the original meaning "tree trunk", now written as 株. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

木
木 Iconic component
mù tree
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

mark indicating the location of the tree's trunk


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 14 verified)

殊珠株蛛诛铢侏茱洙姝邾硃銖誅

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

硃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyuto dwarf
tsyuto red

說文解字

《說文》：“朱，赤心木，松柏屬。从木，一在其中。”

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)

熹 xī dim light

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 喜 represents the sound.

Components

灬
灬 Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

喜
喜 Sound component
xǐ like, happy

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxiqʰ(r)əshine
Zhengzhangqʰlɯ

說文解字

炙也。从火喜聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)