bān​wěi

class committee member

bān group

Original meaning: divide

Depicts a knife () cutting a gem into two halves (), based on the original meaning "to divide". The meaning later shifted to "division", "group", and "team".

Components

Iconic component
jué two pieces of jade joined together
Iconic component
dāo knife

is a component form of .


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpaenpˤ<r>an divide, distribute

說文解字

《說文》:“班,分瑞玉。从玨,从刀。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

wěi bent, winding

Depicts grain () in a bent shape (𠃊).

Components

Iconic component
grain stalk
𠃊
𠃊 Iconic component
yǐn hidden area

Used here to depict a bent shape. Modern form looks like .

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠃊 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
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jweq(r)oj 委蛇 compliant, complaisant
'jweXq(r)ojʔ entrust to
'jweXq(r)ojʔ collect; store
'jweXq(r)orʔ bend; hang down

說文解字

《說文》:“委,委隨也。从女,从禾。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica