玄圃
Xuán​pǔ

mythical fairyland

玄 xuán, xuàn black

Originally the same character as 幺. Similar to 幺, with an distinguishing mark at the top.

Components

亠
亠 Distinguishing component
tóu head
幺
幺 Iconic component
yāo tiny

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 10 verified)

畜弦眩舷炫铉泫痃牽鉉

Iconic (2)

鲧鯀

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwen[ɢ]ʷˤi[n] dark

說文解字

《說文》：“玄，幽遠也。黑而有赤色者為玄。象幽而入覆之也。，古文玄。”

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)

圃 pǔ garden

Phonosemantic compound. 囗 represents the meaning and 甫 represents the sound. Originally written as 甫.

Components

囗
囗 Meaning component
wéi, guó surround
甫
甫 SoundIconic component
fu begin

Pictograph of something sprouting (屮) from a field (田).

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpaːʔ
paːs
Unicodebǒ

說文解字

《說文》：“圃，穜菜曰圃。从囗，甫聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)