熏香
xūn​xiāng

incense

熏 xūn smoke

Depicts fragrant herbs inside a bag (東). The 灬 (fire) component was later added to emphasize that fragrant herbs were usually smoked with fire.

Components

東
東 Iconic component
dōng east

Depicts a bag.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 東 than it was in ancient scripts.
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts fragrant herbs inside a bag.

灬
灬 Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

薰醺獯曛勳燻

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

燻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxjunqʰu[n] smoke (v.); vapor, odor

說文解字

《說文》：“熏，火煙上出也。从屮，从黑。屮黑，熏黑也。”

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)

香 xiāng fragrant

Represents the sweet (甘) smell of fresh grain (禾).

Components

禾
禾 Meaning component
hé grain stalk
甘
甘 Meaning component
gān sweetness

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

馨馥

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxjangqʰaŋ fragrance

說文解字

《說文》：“香，芳也。从黍，从甘。《春秋傳》曰：‘黍稷馨香。’”

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)