zāngZāng

good

Original meaning: slave; servant

Depicts a weapon () slashing an eye (). In ancient China, captured prisoners were blinded with weapons making them into slaves. was later added as a sound component. Based on the original meaning, "slave; servant". The current meaning "good" is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
chén minister

Depicts an eye.

Iconic component
spear
Sound component
pán, qiáng piece of wood

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsang[ts]ˤaŋ good

說文解字

《說文》:“臧,善也。从臣,戕聲。,籀文。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica