件
jiàn HSK2

piece

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approved by inralback19 · Feb 10, 2026, 01:28 AM · Reviewed by inralback19 on Feb 10, 2026, 01:28 AM

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The correspondence between the components 亻(person) 牛 (cow) and the character 件 (item) is unclear.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

牛
牛 Meaning component
niú cow

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgjenX[g]r[a][n]ʔ (no pre-Qín exx?)item

說文解字

《說文》：“件，分也。从人，从牛。牛，大物，故可分。”

Sources

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