luó​xuán​xíng

spiral

luó spiral shell

Components

Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

insect

Sound component
lèi, lěi tired

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlwak.rˤojspiral, snail
Zhengzhangroːl

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

xuán revolve

An army  marching under a flag 

Components

Meaning component
fāng, fang square
Meaning component
pǐ, shū, yǎ foot

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzjwens-ɢʷenturn around; return
zjwenHs-ɢʷen-swhorl of hair on the head
Zhengzhangsɢʷan
sɢʷans
Unicodeziuɛn

說文解字

周旋,旌旗之指麾也。从㫃从疋。疋,足也。

Sources

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

xíng, xing form, shape

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
jǐng well
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Meaning component
shān, xiǎn hair

Three lines depicting a shape

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 Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartheng[ɢ]ˤeŋ form, shape

說文解字

《說文》:“形,象形也。从彡,幵聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica