痛改前非 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

tònggǎiqiánfēi

reform

tòng pain

Phonosemantic compound. 疒 represents the meaning and 甬 represents the sound.

Components

疒 Meaning component

nè sick

甬 Sound component

yǒng, tǒng, dòng path

Character Evolution

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

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thuwngH	l̥ˤoŋ-s	to be pained

說文解字

《說文》：“痛，病也。从疒，甬聲。”

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)

gǎi change

Phonosemantic compound. 攵 represents the meaning and 己 represents the sound.

Components

己 Sound component

jǐ self

Change in sound

改 and 己 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
改 kojX
己 kiX

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

攵 is a component form of 攴.

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kojX	C.qˤəʔ	change (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“改，更也。从攴、己。”

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)

qián in front

Original meaning: cut

Phonosemantic compound. 歬 represents the sound, and 刂 represents the meaning. Based on the original meaning "cut", now written as 剪. The current meaning "in front" is a phonetic loan.

Components

歬 Sound component

qián go forward

Change in form

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

刂 Meaning component

dāo knife

Change in meaning

刂 hints at the original meaning of 前, "cut", which is no longer the most common meaning of 前 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Qin 221-206 BC

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (2 of 5 verified)

箭剪煎翦湔

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzen	[dz]ˤen (~ *m-dzˤen)	before

說文解字

《說文》：“歬，不行而進謂之歬。从止在舟上。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫 The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

fēi not

Depicts two people facing opposite directions.

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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 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

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (6 of 25 verified)

排罪悲菲辈匪啡斐徘裴诽腓绯扉翡蜚霏俳鲱痱悱鯡輩緋誹 show all 25 show fewer

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pj+j	pəj	is not

說文解字

《說文》：“非，違也。从飛下翄，取其相背。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.824-825
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)