役
yì HSK7

service

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approved by Marcus Ngai · Feb 23, 2026, 04:38 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Feb 23, 2026, 04:38 AM

Linked 伇 as the original form. Revert if incorrect or unnecessary.

Changed fields: hint

Original meaning: to command

Originally written as 伇, which depicts a person (亻) being controlled by a weapon (殳). Based on the original meaning "to command". The meaning later shifted to "servant" and "service".

Components

亻
亻 Iconic component
rén person

Depicts a person. Modern form looks like unrelated 彳.

殳
殳 Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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-Sagartywekɢʷek war expedition; service

說文解字

《說文》：“役，戍邊也。从殳，从彳。，古文役从人。”

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)