以不变应万变 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

yǐ by means of

Original meaning: carry

Depicts a person (人) carrying something.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts something being carried.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

似拟苡姒

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	yiX	ləʔ	take, use

說文解字

《說文》：“，用也。从反已。賈侍中說，已，意已實也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.980
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

bù, bu no

Original meaning: sepals

Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The modern meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjuw	pə	not
	pjuw	pə	不律 writing brush (pron. in Wú 吳 ap. Shuōwén; E. Hàn)

說文解字

《說文》：“不，鳥飛上翔不下來也。从一，一猶天也。象形。”

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)

biàn change Simplified

Simplified form of 變. Phonosemantic compound. 夂 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

䜌 Sound Simplified component

luán tie together

Change in sound

变 and 䜌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand for the 夂 component in the traditional character 變. 夂 is a component form of 止.

Sources

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

yīng, yìng, ying should Simplified

Simplified form of 應. Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 䧹 represents the sound.

Components

心 Meaning Simplified component

xīn, xin heart

䧹 Sound Simplified component

yīng eagle

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

wàn ten thousand Simplified

Original meaning: to not be seen

Simplified form of 萬. Variant of 丏. Depicts a person (人) with a cover on top, conveying the original meaning "to not be seen". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

一 Iconic component

yī one

Used here to depict a cover.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

厉虿劢

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

迈趸疠

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	mans
	mɯːɡ

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.701黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.2839-2840
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica

biàn change Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 夂 represents the meaning and 䜌 represents the sound.

Components

䜌 Sound component

luán tie together

Change in sound

變 and 䜌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
變 *pro[n]-s
䜌 *mə.rˤo[n]

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjenH	pro[n]-s	change (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“變，更也。从攴，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)

yīng, yìng, ying should Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 䧹 represents the sound.

Components

心 Meaning component

xīn, xin heart

䧹 Sound component

yīng eagle

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'ing	[q](r)əŋ	ought

說文解字

《說文》：“應，當也。从心，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)

wàn ten thousand Traditional

Original meaning: scorpion

Originally a pictograph of a scorpion. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

邁躉癘

Sound (1)

厲

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjonH	C.ma[n]-s	10,000

說文解字

《說文》：“萬，蟲也。从厹，象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.954-955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)

以 yǐ by means of

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

不 bù, bu no

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (3 of 5 verified)

Simplified (4)

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

变 biàn change Simplified

Components

Sources

应 yīng, yìng, ying should Simplified

Components

Sources

万 wàn ten thousand Simplified

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

變 biàn change Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

應 yīng, yìng, ying should Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

萬 wàn ten thousand Traditional

Character Evolution

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

yǐ by means of

bù, bu no

biàn change Simplified

yīng, yìng, ying should Simplified

wàn ten thousand Simplified

biàn change Traditional

yīng, yìng, ying should Traditional

wàn ten thousand Traditional