眞
zhēn

real

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approved by inralback19 · Feb 16, 2026, 03:49 PM · Reviewed by inralback19 on Feb 16, 2026, 03:49 PM

variant

Changed fields: originalMeaning, components

Variant form of 真. Based on the original meaning "precious", now written as 珍. The meaning later shifted to "genuine" and "true".

Character Evolution

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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔljin

說文解字

《說文》：“真，僊人變形而登天也。从，从目，从。八，所乘載也。，古文真。”

Sources

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