乘
chéngshèng HSK5

ride

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approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 28, 2026, 06:37 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 28, 2026, 06:37 AM

Put "Modern form of the component looks different than the character it comes from" on the wrong component, woops.

Changed fields: components

Depicts a person (大) who has used their legs (舛) to climb up a tree (木).

Components

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

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 Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzyingCə.ləŋ ride (v.)
zyingHCə.ləŋ-s vehicle
zyingHCə.ləŋ-s team of four horses

說文解字

《說文》：“乘，覆也。从入、桀。桀，黠也。軍法曰乘。，古文乘从几。”

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)