chén

(interchangeable 晨) daybreak

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

說文解字

《說文》:“,早昧爽也。从,从辰。辰,時也,辰亦聲。夕為,辰為,皆同意。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica