Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjuX | m(r)aʔ | military |
說文解字
《說文》：“武，楚莊王曰：夫武，定功戢兵。故止戈為武。”
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)
Simplified
Original meaning: head
Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | then | l̥ˤi[n] | heaven |
| xen | l̥ˤi[n] (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-) | heaven |
說文解字
《說文》：“天，顛也。至高无上，从一、大。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.40-41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)
Traditional
Original meaning: law
Depicts carving inscriptions on bronzeware (鼎) with a knife (刂). Based on the original meaning "law". In ancient China, some legal writings were inscribed on bronzeware.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsok | [ts]ˤək | then |
| tsok | [ts]ˤək | rule, pattern |
說文解字
《說文》：“則，等畫物也。从刀，从貝。貝，古之物貨也。，古文則。，亦古文則。，籀文則从鼎。”
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)