漁
yú

to fish

Depicts catching fish (魚) from the water (氵). In many ancient forms, it was mostly written either as two hands holding a net catching a fish or four fish swimming in a stream of water.

Components

氵
氵 Iconic component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

魚
魚 SoundIconic component
yú fish

魚 also represents the sound.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngjo[ŋ](r)a to fish

說文解字

《說文》：“，捕魚也。从，从水。漁，篆文从魚。”

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)

渔 yú to fish Simplified

Simplified form of 漁. Depicts catching fish (鱼) from the water (氵). In many ancient forms, it was mostly written either as two hands holding a net catching a fish or four fish swimming in a stream of water.

Components

氵
氵 Iconic component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

鱼
鱼 SoundIconic component
yú fish

鱼 also represents the sound.

Sources

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