衣食无虞
yī​shí​wú​yú

well-provided

衣 yī clothes

Pictograph of a shirt or coat.

Character Evolution

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 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 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
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (17 of 34 verified)

表装裁袭袋裂衷裹裳裘襄裴亵袅褒袤裟袈衮衾褰雜襞製裒裝裏袞襲褱扆褻𧝑裊

Iconic (6)

劳衰袁卒𲀭勞

Sound (2 of 5 verified)

依哀裔铱扆

Remnant (3)

劳勞奮

Unknown (1)

奮

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'j+jʔ(r)əj clothes
'j+jHʔ(r)əj-s wear (v.t.)

說文解字

《說文》：“衣，依也。上曰衣，下曰裳。象覆二人之形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.663
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

食 shí, shi eat

Depicts a mouth (亼) eating from a food vessel (皀).

Components

亼
亼 Iconic component
jí (upside-down mouth), to assemble

Depicts an upside-down mouth.

皀
皀 Iconic component
jí, bī, xiāng one grain

Depicts a food vessel.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 皀 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 Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (4 of 11 verified)

餐饕飧飨饔餍餮養饜飬饗

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzyikmə-lək eat
ziHs-m-lək-s feed (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“食，一米也。从皀，亼聲。或說亼皀也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.435-436
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

无 wú negative Simplified

Original meaning: dance

Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current form is a phonetic loan. The simplified character 无 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 無.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 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 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

抚芜妩庑呒怃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmjuma not have

說文解字

《說文》：“，亡也，从亡無聲；无，奇字无，通於元者，王育說：‘天屈西北為无。’”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

虞 yú concerned about

Phonosemantic compound. 虍 represents the meaning and 吳 represents the sound.

Components

虍
虍 Meaning component
hū tiger

虍 is a component form of 虎.

吳
吳 Sound component
one of warring states

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 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 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-Sagartngju[ŋ]ʷ(r)a foresee
ngju[ŋ]ʷ(r)a gamester; forester

說文解字

《說文》：“虞，騶虞也。白虎黑文，尾長於身。仁獸，食自死之肉。从虍，吳聲。《詩》曰：‘于嗟乎騶虞’。”

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)

無 wú negative Traditional

Original meaning: dance

Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

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 Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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 Qin 221-206 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

舞鄦廡蕪撫嫵嘸

Iconic (1)

舞

Remnant (1)

舞

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmjuma not have
mjuma volitional prefix
mjumo don’t

說文解字

《說文》：“，豐也。从林、。或說規模字。从大；，數之積也；林者，木之多也。與庶同意。《商書》曰：｀庶草繁無’。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)