堇
jǐn

clay

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approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 23, 2026, 08:39 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 23, 2026, 08:39 AM

Not an edit, just a question, but why does 𦰩 (as a radical) look LITERALLY indentical to 堇, when we've separated them into two different characters??

Original meaning: burn a person alive as a sacrifice

Pictograph of burning a tortured person (𦰩) over fire (火) as sacrifice, now written as 熯. The meaning later shifted to "bake", "dry out", and "clay".

Components

𦰩
𦰩 SoundIconic component

Depicts a tortured person sighing.

火
火 Iconic component

Modern form looks like 土, but is unrelated.

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartgin[g]rə[r] time, season
kj+nXkə[r]ʔ (a kind of vegetable)
gin[g]rə[r] clay

說文解字

《說文》：“堇，黏土也。从土，从黄省。、皆古文堇。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.1198季旭昇《說文新證》p.912
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)