公义 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

gōng public

Original meaning: earthen jar

Pictograph of a earthen jar for holding liquid, now written as 瓮. The current meaning "public" is a phonetic loan.

Components

八 Iconic component

bā eight

Depicts handles of a jar.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

Depicts the opening of a jar.

Change in form

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

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 (5 of 14 verified)

容松讼翁颂瓮蚣衮忪袞頌訟鈆彸

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kuwng	C.qˤoŋ	impartial, just; public
	kuwng	C.qˤoŋ	father; prince

說文解字

《說文》：“公，平分也。从八、从厶。八，猶背也。韓非曰：‘背厶為公’。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.86-87
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

yì justice Simplified

Adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 義. Phonosemantic compound. 羊 represents the meaning and 我 represents the sound. In ancient China sheep (羊) were associated with goodness and beauty, which is why 羊 is a component in characters like 美 (beautiful), 善 (benevolent), and 義 (justice).

Components

羊 Meaning Simplified component

yáng sheep

我 Sound Simplified component

wǒ I; me

Change in sound

义 and 我 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
义 *ŋ(r)aj-s
我 *ŋˤajʔ

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

议仪蚁舣

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

yì right conduct Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 羊 represents the meaning and 我 represents the sound. In ancient China sheep (羊) were associated with goodness and beauty, which is why 羊 is a component in characters like 美 (beautiful), 善 (benevolent), and 義 (justice).