彪炳
biāo​bǐng

illustrious

彪 biāo tiger

A tiger's 虎 stripes 彡

Components

虎
虎 Meaning component
hǔ, hu tiger
彡
彡 Meaning component
shān, xiǎn hair

stripes

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangprɯw

說文解字

《說文》：“彪，虎文也。从虎，彡象其文也。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

炳 bǐng bright

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 丙 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
丙
丙 Sound component
bǐng third

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpraŋʔ
Unicodebiæ̌ng

說文解字

明也。从火丙聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)