秘传
mì​chuán

secretly hand down

秘 mì secret, mysterious Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 必 represents the sound. Originally written as 祕. The 礻 component was later corrupted to 禾.

Components

禾
禾 Simplified component
hé grain stalk

Corruption of the 礻 component in the original character 祕.

必
必 Sound component
bì surely

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmpriɡs

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.6
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

传 chuán, zhuàn pass on, transmit Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 专 represents the sound. Simplified form of 傳.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

专
专 Sound component
zhuān monopolize

Sources

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

祕 mì, bì secret, mysterious Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 必 represents the sound.

Components

礻
礻 Meaning component
shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

必
必 Sound component
bì surely

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

說文解字

《說文》：“祕，神也。从示，必聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

傳 chuán, zhuàn pass on, transmit Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 專 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

專
專 Sound component
zhuān monopolize

Character Evolution

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 Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
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-Sagartdrjwenm-tron transmit
drjwenHN-tron-s what has been transmitted
trjwenHtron-s relay post

說文解字

《說文》：“傳，遽也。从人，專聲。”

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)