一年四季 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

Chinese Character Wiki Wiki

yīniánsìjì

year-round

yī one

A single horizontal stroke, representing the number one.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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

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 Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Iconic (9)

生之方或万旦曰巿丏

Meaning (2 of 7 verified)

百千兹闩戛晉閂

Unknown (2)

Distinguishing (1)

Simplified (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'jit	ʔi[t]	one

說文解字

《說文》：“一，惟初太始，道立於一，造分天地，化成萬物。弌，古文一。”

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

nián year

Original meaning: harvest

Pictograph of a person (人) harvesting grain (禾). The harvest season is a yearly event.

Components

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 禾 than it was in ancient scripts.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nen	C.nˤi[ŋ]	harvest; year

說文解字

《說文》：“年，穀孰也。从禾，千聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.574-575
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

sì four

In ancient texts the character 亖 (four horizontal strokes) was used. The current form 四 depicts breathing through the nose and is the original form of 呬. The use of 四 as a number is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Jin 266-420 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sijH	s.li[j]-s	four

說文解字

《說文》：“四，陰數也。象四分之形。，古文四。亖，籀文四。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.948
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

jì season

Original meaning: youngest, small grains

禾 represents short stalks of grain, 子 represents a young child. Based on the original meaning "youngest, small grains". The meaning later shifted to "crops", and "season".

Components

禾 Meaning component

hé grain stalk

子 Meaning component

zi, zǐ child

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

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

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kjwijH	kʷi[t]-s	youngest

說文解字

《說文》：“季，少偁也。从子，从稚省，稚亦聲。”

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)