孝
xiào HSK7

filial piety

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approved by 龍龖龘𪚥167 · Jul 8, 2026, 07:06 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Jul 8, 2026, 08:54 PM

It currently says that the top component of 孝 is a remnant of 老, but it's better to say that it's 耂.

Changed fields: hint, components

Depicts a child (子) respecting an old person (耂), conveying the meaning "filial piety".

Components

耂
耂 Iconic component

耂 is a component form of 老.

子
子 Iconic component

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxaewHqʰˤ<r>uʔ-s filial

說文解字

《說文》：“孝，善事父母者。从老省，从子，子承老也。”

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)