dāo​mǎ​dàn

female warrior role

dāo knife

Pictograph of a knife.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (3 of 5 verified)

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttawC.tˤaw knife

說文解字

《說文》:“刀,兵也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.352
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

horse Simplified

Simplified form of . Pictograph of a horse.

Component uses

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.741-742漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

dàn dawn

Depicts the sun () rising above the horizon () at dawn. In the oracle bone script the bottom component was the phonetic , which was later reanalyzed as the earth or a horizon.

Components

Iconic component
sun
Iconic component
one

Depicts the horizon.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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

Component uses

Sound (4 of 12 verified)

Meaning (3 of 4 verified)

Unknown (2 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttanHtˤan-s dawn

說文解字

《說文》:“旦,明也。从日見一上。一,地也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.539
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

horse Traditional

Pictograph of a horse.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaeXmˤraʔ horse

說文解字

《說文》:“馬,怒也;武也。象馬頭髦尾四足之形。,古文。,籀文馬與同,有髦。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.741-742漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica