賓
bīn

guest

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approved by Marcus Ngai · Mar 30, 2026, 11:03 AM · Reviewed by Marcus Ngai on Mar 30, 2026, 11:03 AM

changed component (someone probably didn't read the source in detail, as its stated as the 丏/万 component, not 止. 止 only appears in the 甲骨文. Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Changed fields: hint, components

Depicts a guest walking into a house (宀) with a gift (貝). 丏 represents the sound.

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
丏
丏 Sound component

Depicts a foot.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丏 than it was in ancient scripts.
貝
貝 Iconic component

In ancient China shells were used as currency.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjinpi[n] guest

說文解字

《說文》：“賓，所敬也。从貝，聲。，古文。”

Sources

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