城隍
Chéng Huáng

City God

城 chéng city

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 成 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
成
成 Sound component
chéng, cheng completed

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyeng[d]eŋ city wall

說文解字

《說文》：“城，以盛民也。从土，从成，成亦聲。，籀文城从。”

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)

隍 huáng dry ditch

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

place

皇
皇 Sound component
huáng royal

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwang[ɢ]ʷˤaŋmoat
Zhengzhangɡʷaːŋ
Unicodehuɑng

說文解字

城池也。有水曰池，無水曰隍。从𨸏皇聲。《易》曰：“城復于隍。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)