兼善天下 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

jiān double

Depicts a hand (又) holding two stalks of grain (禾).

Components

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

Change in form

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

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

Change in form

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

又 Iconic component

yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (6 of 13 verified)

廉嫌歉赚谦慊缣鹣蒹搛賺謙鶼

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

搛

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kem	[k]ˤem	combine; at the same time

說文解字

《說文》：“兼，并也。从又持秝。兼，持二禾。秉，持一禾。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫裘錫圭 "Chinese Writing" p.188
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

shàn good

Composed of two 言 (speech) components and 羊 (sheep). 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 component

yáng sheep

言 Sound component

yán speech

Change in sound

善 and 言 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
善 *[g]e[n]ʔ
言 *ŋa[n]

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 7 verified)

膳缮蟮鳝鄯繕鱔

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzyenX	[g]e[n]ʔ	good

說文解字

《說文》：“譱，吉也。从誩，从羊。此與義、美同意。，篆文从言。”

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)

tiān, tian sky

Original meaning: head

Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a head.

大 Iconic component

dà, dài big

Depicts a person.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	then	l̥ˤi[n]	heaven
	xen	l̥ˤi[n] (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-)	heaven

說文解字

《說文》：“天，顛也。至高无上，从一、大。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.40-41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)

xià, xia under

Originally a small line or dot below a longer line, indicating "down". The vertical line was added to distinguish the character from 二 (two). Opposite of 上.