wèi, yù, yùn officer

Original meaning: to iron

Depicts a hand () holding two stones over fire () to iron a person's () back as a treatment for a disease. Based on the original meaning "to iron", now written as . The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
shī sitting person

Depicts a person sitting or squatting.

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two pieces of small elliptical stones.

Iconic component
huǒ fire

Modern form looks like unrelated .

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Depicts a hand.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangquds
qud
Unicodeqiuə̀i

說文解字

《說文》:“尉,从上案下也。从、又,持火以尉申繒也。”

Sources

Character origin
林志強《《文源》評注》p.266黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3200
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

shì clan

Pictograph of a tool similar to a hammer that is shaped like deer antlers. Original meaning unclear.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 8 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyeXk.deʔ clan

說文解字

《說文》:“氏,巴蜀山名岸脅之旁箸欲落者曰氏。氏崩聲聞數百里。象形,乀聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.859-860漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica