气不平 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

qì, qi air Simplified

Depicts a gust of air.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (4 of 23 verified)

汽氧氛氢氯氨氮氖氟氦氲氰氤氩氚氪氘氡氙氕氳氜氫 show all 23 show fewer

Sound (4)

汽忾饩氣

Iconic (1)

氣

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	khj+jH	C.qʰəp-s	(inhaled thing:) breath, air, vapors

說文解字

《說文》：“气，雲气也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.58-59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)

bù, bu no

Original meaning: sepals

Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The modern meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjuw	pə	not
	pjuw	pə	不律 writing brush (pron. in Wú 吳 ap. Shuōwén; E. Hàn)

說文解字

《說文》：“不，鳥飛上翔不下來也。从一，一猶天也。象形。”

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)

píng flat

Original meaning: to strike

Depicts using a staff (丂) for striking. Based on the original meaning "to strike", now written as 抨. The meaning later shifted to "level", "even", and "flat".

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts the moving motion of striking.

丂 Iconic component

kǎo, qiǎo, yú axe handle

Depicts a staff.

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (5 of 11 verified)

评苹坪砰抨怦鲆枰評泙鮃

Meaning (1 of 3 verified)

坪秤枰

Iconic (1)

抨

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	bjien	[b]en	distinguish; punctiious
	bjaeng	breŋ	even (adj.)
	bjaeng	m-breŋ	make even

說文解字

《說文》：“平，語平舒也。从亏，从八。八，分也。”

Sources

Character origin: 王森《甲骨文、金文所谓“乎”字当释为“平”字》
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

qì, qi air Traditional

Original meaning: gift of grain

Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 气 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gift of grain", now written as 餼. The current meaning "air" is a phonetic loan.