书牍
shū​dú

correspondence

书 shū book Simplified

Simplified form of 書. Phonosemantic compound. 聿 represents the meaning and 者 represents the sound. The simplified character 书 is derived from the cursive form of 書.

Components

聿
聿 MeaningSimplified component
yù writing brush
者
者 SoundSimplified component
zhě one who...
Change in sound

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

牍 dú writing tablet Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 片 represents the meaning and 卖 represents the sound. Simplified form of 牘.

Components

片
片 Meaning component
piàn, piān slice
卖
卖 Sound component
mài, mai sell

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

書 shū book Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 聿 represents the meaning and 者 represents the sound.

Components

聿
聿 Meaning component
yù writing brush
者
者 Sound component
zhě one who...
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 者 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyos-ta write

說文解字

《說文》：“書，箸也。从聿，者聲。”

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)

牘 writing tablet Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 片 represents the meaning and 賣 represents the sound.

Components

片
片 Meaning component
piàn, piān slice
賣
賣 Sound component
mài, mai sell

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartduwklˤoktablet
Zhengzhangl'oːɡ

說文解字

書版也。从片賣聲。

Sources

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