present

Components

Sound component
even, uniform
Meaning component
bèi sea shell

money

Character Evolution

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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsliːl
ʔslil

說文解字

持遺也。从貝齊聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

present Simplified

Money  from  someone

Components

Meaning component
shí ten
Meaning component
cóng, cōng from
Meaning component
cover
Meaning component
bèi sea shell

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode