頁
yèxié HSK1

(head), page

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approved by Peter Olson · Oct 20, 2021, 03:05 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Oct 20, 2021, 03:05 AM

gloss

Changed fields: gloss

Original meaning: head

Pictograph of a head (首) on top of a person (卩). Means "head" when pronounced xié. Has unrelated meaning "leaf" when pronounced yè, due to this character being adopted as a variant form of 葉.

Components

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangleb
ɡleːd

說文解字

《說文》：“頁，頭也。从，从儿。古文如此。者首字也。”

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)