善举
shàn​jǔ

good deed

善 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
羊 Meaning component
yáng sheep
言
言 Sound component
yán speech
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 言 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 7 verified)

膳缮蟮鳝鄯繕鱔

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyenX[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)

举 jǔ, ju raise Simplified

Simplified form of 舉. Phonosemantic compound. 手 represents the meaning and 與 represents the sound.

Components

手
手 Meaning component
shǒu, shou hand
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 手 than it was in ancient scripts.
兴
兴 Simplified component
xìng, xīng rise, flourish

Shorthand for the 與 component in the traditional character 舉.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

榉

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

舉 jǔ, ju raise Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 手 represents the meaning and 與 represents the sound.

Components

手
手 Meaning component
shǒu, shou hand
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 手 than it was in ancient scripts.
與
與 Sound component
yǔ, yù together with

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 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 (0 of 1 verified)

櫸

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjoXC.q(r)aʔ lift, raise
kjoX[k](r)aʔ all

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica