茍
jí

to be circumspect

Pictograph of a Qiang person kneeling down in respect. The 口 (mouth) component was added later since Qiang people were seen as slaves by the Shang people in ancient China. Original form of 敬.

Components

羊
羊 IconicRemnant component
yáng sheep

Depicts an ornament resembling sheep horns. Alludes to the Qiang people's shepherd lifestyle.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 羊 than it was in ancient scripts.
卩
卩 Iconic component
jié person kneeling

Depicts a kneeling person.

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

敬

Meaning (1)

敬

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkɯɡ
Unicodegǒu

說文解字

《說文》：“茍，自急敕也。从羊省，从包省，从口，口猶慎言也。从羊，羊與善美同意。，古文，羊不省。”

Sources

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