鱼米之乡 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

yú fish Simplified

Simplified form of 魚. Pictograph of a fish.

Component uses

Sound (3 of 4 verified)

鲁渔稣蓟

Iconic (3)

鲁渔鲧

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

mǐ rice

Pictograph of grains of rice.

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (16 of 45 verified)

精粮糊粗粉粒粹糖糟粘糕粟糙籽粱糜糠糯粑粕粲粽粳糅糁籴粜粝粢糇籼糌糨糗糍粞糈糢糰糧匊糲糬氣䊪 show all 45 show fewer

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mejX	(C.)mˤ[e]jʔ	millet or rice grains, dehusked and polished

說文解字

《說文》：“米，粟實也。象禾實之形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.579-580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)

zhī [attributive particle]

Original meaning: go forwards

Pictograph of a foot (止) going out of an area. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

止 Sound Iconic component

zhǐ (foot), stop

Depicts a foot.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 止 than it was in ancient scripts.

一 Iconic component

yī one

Used here to depict an area.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

志寺芝

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyi	tə	go to
	tsyi	tə	(3p object pronoun; attributive particle)

說文解字

《說文》：“之，出也。象艸過屮，枝莖益大有所之。一者，地也。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.498-499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)

xiāng hometown Simplified

Simplified form of 鄉. Pictograph of two people facing each other, kneeling down to share a meal. Based on the original meaning "feast" or "offer food", now written as 饗. The meaning later shifted to "hometown". The right two components were removed for simplification.

Components

卩 Iconic component

jié person kneeling

Depicts a kneeling person facing right.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 卩 than it was in ancient scripts.

飠 Deleted component

eat

卩 Deleted component

jié person kneeling

Depicts a kneeling person facing left.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

飨芗

Simplified (0 of 1 verified)

芗

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

yú fish Traditional

Pictograph of a fish.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (4 of 61 verified)

Iconic (4)

鯀漁爯魯

Sound (3)

漁魯穌

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngjo	[r.ŋ]a	fish (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“魚，水蟲也。象形。魚尾與燕尾相似。”

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)

xiāng hometown Traditional

Original meaning: feast, offer food

Pictograph of two people facing each other, kneeling down to share a meal. Based on the original meaning "feast" or "offer food", now written as 饗. The meaning later shifted to "hometown".