xī​xiān

St. Paul's wort

pig

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxj+jqʰəjswine
xj+jXqʰəjʔswine
Zhengzhanghlɯl
hlɯlʔ

說文解字

豕走豨豨。从豕希聲。古有封豨脩虵之害。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

xiān, liǎn, yán vine Simplified

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

plant

Sound component
qiān together

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

vine Traditional

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡ·ram
ɡ·ramʔ
qʰram

說文解字

白薟也。从艸僉聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica