白鹤梁
Bái​hè​liáng

White Crane Ridge

白 bái, bai white

Origin unclear. Possibly depicts a thumb or a person's face.

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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (8 of 15 verified)

百怕伯迫拍帕柏泊舶魄珀帛粕铂樂

Meaning (2 of 13 verified)

的珀皓皖皑皋皙皎皤皅皦皒皚

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbaekbˤrak white

說文解字

《說文》：“白，西方色也。陰用事，物色白。从入合二。二，陰數。，古文白。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.625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)

鹤 hè crane Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 鸟 represents the meaning and 隺 represents the sound.

Components

隺
隺 Sound component
hú, què, hè (crane), very high
鸟
鸟 Meaning component
niǎo bird

bird

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

梁 liáng, liang bridge

Phonosemantic compound. 氵and 木 represent the meaning and 刅 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water
刅
刅 Sound component
chuāng to create
木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

粱墚樑

Remnant (0 of 1 verified)

粱

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

樑

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartljangraŋ beam; bridge

說文解字

《說文》：“梁，水橋也。从木，从水，刅聲。渿，古文。”

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)

鶴 crane Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 鳥 represents the meaning and 隺 represents the sound.

Components

隺
隺 SoundMeaning component
hú, què, hè (crane), very high
鳥
鳥 Meaning component
niǎo bird

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthaewk[g]ˤrawk white (of birds)
hak[g]ˤawk crane

說文解字

《說文》：“鶴，鳴九臯，聲聞于天。从鳥，隺聲。”

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)