励志
lì​zhì HSK7

inspirational

励 lì strive Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 力 represents the meaning and 厉 represents the sound. Simplified form of 勵.

Components

厉
厉 Sound component
lì whetstone
力
力 SoundMeaning component
lì, li power

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

志 zhì purpose, will

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 之 represents the sound. In simplified Chinese 志 is also used to mean "write down, record", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 誌.

Components

之
之 Sound component
zhī [attributive particle]

Later reanalyzed as 士, which also works as a sound component.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 之 than it was in ancient scripts.
心
心 Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 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

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

痣誌

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

痣

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyiHtə-s goal, intention, aspiration

說文解字

《說文》：“志，意也。从心，之聲。”

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)

勵 lì strive Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 力 represents the meaning and 厲 represents the sound.

Components

厲
厲 Sound component
lì whetstone
力
力 SoundMeaning component
lì, li power

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangm·rads

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang