脈
mài

blood vessels

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approved by Prismcool · Dec 23, 2025, 05:31 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Dec 23, 2025, 05:31 PM

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Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources

The blood vessels is the part of the body (⺼) where blood flows (𠂢).

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

𠂢
𠂢 SoundMeaning component

Used here to allude to flowing blood in the blood vessels. 𠂢 also represents the sound.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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-SagartmeakC.mˤ<r>[i]k vein

說文解字

《說文》：“，血理分衺行體者，从从血。脈，或从肉。衇，籀文。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.1019
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)