降旨
jiàng​zhǐ

issue edict

降 jiàng, xiáng descend

Depicts two feet (夅) descending down a hill (阝).

Components

阝
阝 Iconic component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜. Depicts a hill.

夅
夅 SoundIconic component
jiàng, xiáng to descend

Depicts two feet walking down a hill.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkaewngHkˤruŋ-s (? < *-[u]m-s)descend
haewngm-kˤru[ŋ] (? < *-[u]m)submit

說文解字

《說文》：“降，下也。从，夅聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫張世超《金文形義通解》p.3353
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

旨 zhǐ purpose

Original meaning: fine-tasting

Depicts a spoon (匕) going into the mouth (口), conveying the original meaning "fine-tasting". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

匕
匕 Iconic component
bǐ, pìn spoon, (person)
口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

Depicts food inside the 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 Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 8 verified)

指脂稽诣耆酯詣鮨

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

诣詣

Iconic (1)

嘗

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyijXkijʔ fine-tasting

說文解字

《說文》：“旨，美也。从甘，匕聲。，古文旨。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.396-397
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)