牡丹
mǔ​danMǔ​dan HSK7

tree peony

牡 mǔ male of animals

Depicts a cow (牛) with a penis (丄). In oracle bone script the animals varied in depiction, such as a pig (豕), a deer (鹿), sheep (羊), horse (馬), etc.

Components

牛
牛 Iconic component
niú cow
丄
丄 Iconic component
shàng above

Depicts a penis.

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

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
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmuwXm(r)uʔ male

說文解字

《說文》：“牡，畜父也。从牛，土聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.91-92
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

丹 dān, dan cinnabar

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar found in a well for mining.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a chunk of cinnabar.

井
井 Iconic component
jǐng well

Depicts a well for mining.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

坍旃

Meaning (2)

彤旃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttantˤan cinnabar

說文解字

《說文》：“丹，巴越之赤石也。象采丹井，一象丹形。，古文丹。，亦古文丹。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.426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)