羲
xī

ancient emperor

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approved by Prismcool · May 26, 2024, 06:12 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on May 26, 2024, 06:12 AM

Reworked explanation for brevity

Changed fields: hint, components

Original meaning: sacrificial slaughter

Depicts a weapon (我) slaughtering a pig for the purpose of sacrificing an animal for offering. The 我 component was later reanalyzed into phonetic component 義 with the addition of the 羊 (sheep) component and the component depicting the slaughtered pig was later reanalyzed as meaning component 兮. Based on the original meaning "sacrificial slaughter", now written as 犠. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

義
義 SoundIconic component

Originally 我. Depicts a weapon. The 羊 (sheep) component was added later reanalyzing this component into phonetic component 義.

兮
兮 Meaning component

Originally depicted a slaughtered pig. Later reanalyzed into meaning component 兮.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxjeŋ̊(r)aj (proper name)

說文解字

《說文》:“羲,气也。从兮,義聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤 《字源》 p.422
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica