丞
chéng

assist, deputy

Depicts using two hands (廾) to rescue a person (卩) trapped in a pit (凵). Original form of 拯. The modern meaning "deputy" is a phonetic loan.

Components

廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 廾 than it was in ancient scripts.
卩
卩 Iconic component
jié person kneeling
凵
凵 Iconic component
qiǎn, kǎn enclosure

Depicts a pit.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Western Zhou 1045-771 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (1 of 3 verified)

拯烝巹

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

拯卺

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyingm-təŋ assist

說文解字

《說文》：“丞，翊也。从廾，从卩，从山。山高，奉承之義。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.173
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)