壤
rǎng HSK7

soil

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

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
襄
襄 Sound component
xiāng aid

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyangXnaŋʔcultivated soil
Zhengzhangnjaŋʔ
Unicodenjiɑ̌ng

說文解字

柔土也。从土襄聲。

Sources

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