Shǔ

short name for Sichuan

Depicts a person () raising silkworms (). Refers to Can Cong (蠶叢), the legendary ruler of the kingdom of Shu (modern-day Sichuan), who was said to have been the inventor of silk.

Components

Iconic component
eye

Depicts the eye of a person.

Iconic component
rén, ren person
Iconic component
chóng bug, insect

Depicts a silkworm.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone Western Zhou 1045-771 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 8 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyowk[d]ok caterpillar; Shu [place name]

說文解字

《說文》:“蜀,葵中蠶也。从虫。上目象蜀頭形,中象其身蜎蜎。《詩》曰:‘蜎蜎者蜀。’”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica