章
zhāngZhāng HSK3

chapter, seal

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approved by inralback19 · Feb 13, 2026, 09:17 PM · Reviewed by inralback19 on Feb 13, 2026, 09:17 PM

Rollback oifA3BMuccLgoZGdG

Changed fields: gloss, hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Original meaning: jade ornament

Possibly depicts using a blade (䇂) to engrave a block of jade. Based on the original meaning "jade ornament", now written as 璋. Later the meaning shifted to "seal" and "chapter".

Components

䇂
䇂 Iconic component
◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts a block of jade.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyangtaŋ brilliant; distinctive mark; to display

說文解字

《說文》：“章，樂竟為一章。从音，从十。十，數之終也。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.198
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)