堯
yáo

legendary ancient emperor-sage

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approved by Peter Olson · Oct 9, 2021, 09:20 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Oct 9, 2021, 09:20 PM

typo

Changed fields: hint

Original meaning: tall; lofty

Depicts a mound of dirt (土) on top of a platform (兀), representing the original meaning "tall; lofty", later used to describe the legendary Emperor Yao.

Components

土
土 Iconic component
tǔ earth
土
土 Iconic component
tǔ earth
土
土 Iconic component
tǔ earth
兀
兀 Iconic component
wù stand tall

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngew[ŋ]ˤew high

說文解字

《說文》：“堯，高也。从垚在兀上，高遠也。，古文堯。”

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)