帝
dì HSK6

supreme ruler

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approved by inralback19 · Feb 28, 2026, 02:29 PM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Feb 28, 2026, 02:37 PM

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Changed fields: hint

Original meaning: firewood used as sacrifice

Pictograph of firewood bundled together for a sacrifice. Based on the original meaning "firewood used as sacrifice", now written as 禘. Later the meaning changed to "emperor".

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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 Qin 221-206 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 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-SagarttejHtˤek-s God

說文解字

《說文》：“帝，諦也。王天下之號也。从丄，朿聲。，古文帝。古文諸丄字皆从一，篆文皆从，，古文上字。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.46
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)