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Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC 
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC 
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC 
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
x peaceful
Changed fields: originalMeaning
Original meaning: level
Originally depicted a rope wrapped around an arrow. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yij | ləj | level, peaceful |
| yij | ləj | foreigner (especially to the east) |
說文解字
《說文》：“夷，平也。从大，从弓。東方之人也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.764-765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)