比
bǐpí HSK1

to compare

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approved by Peter Olson · Apr 25, 2021, 03:36 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Apr 25, 2021, 03:36 AM

verify

Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources

Two people side-by-side, conveying the meaning "to put together", "match", or "compare".

Components

人
人 Iconic component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.
人
人 Iconic component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.

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 Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Qin 221-206 BC
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpjijXC.pijʔ compare
pjijHpij-s combine; all

說文解字

《說文》：“比，密也。二人為从，反从為比。夶，古文比。”

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)