邹衍
Zōu Yǎn

Zou Yan

邹 zōu, jù name of an ancient state Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 刍 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鄒.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

刍
刍 Sound component
chú, zōu mow, cut grass

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

衍 yǎn overflow

Original meaning: long river

Same origin as 永. Pictograph of a long river with a tributary. The meaning later shifted to "overflow" and "spill over".

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
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Component uses

Sound (1)

愆

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyenXN-q(r)anʔ overflow

說文解字

《說文》：“衍，水朝宗于海也。从水，从行。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.796裘錫圭《裘錫圭學術文集》Vol 1, p.382
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

鄒 name of an ancient state Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 芻 represents the sound.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

芻
芻 Sound component
mow, cut grass

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsru

說文解字

魯縣，古邾國，帝顓頊之後所封。从邑芻聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)