hóng vast

Original meaning: loud sound

Phonosemantic compound. represents the sound and represents the original meaning "loud sound". The meaning later extended to "great", "vast".

Components

Sound component
gōng bow
Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "loud sound", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwong[ɢ]ʷˤəŋ vast

說文解字

《說文》:“弘,弓聲也。从弓,厶聲。厶,古文肱字。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

map Simplified

Simplified form of . Depicts a map of city boundaries () and places outside the city boundaries ().

Components

Iconic component
wéi, guó surround

Depicts walls of a city.

Simplified component
dōng winter

Shorthand for the component in the traditional character .

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

map Traditional

Depicts a map of city boundaries () and places outside the city boundaries ().

Components

Iconic component
wéi, guó surround

Depicts walls of a city.

Iconic component
bǐ, tú remote place

Depicts a granary outside city walls.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdu[d]ˤa consider

說文解字

《說文》:“圖,畫計難也。从口,从啚。啚,難意也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica