Chinese Character Wiki
上

shàng, shǎng

up

Originally a small line or dot above a longer line, indicating "up". The vertical line was added to distinguish the character from 二 (two). Opposite of 下.

Evolution

上 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
上 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
上 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
上 Clerical script Wu (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Clerical script

Wu (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)
上 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

上  

shàng

top; superior, highest; go up, send up; on top; upon; above; upper; previous; first (of multiple parts); to climb; to get onto; to go up; to attend (class or university)

上  

shǎng

see 上聲|上声[shǎng​shēng]

Most common words with 上
Freq.
Word
Meaning

上

on top

晚上

evening

上帝

God

马上

at once

上海

Shanghai municipality, central east China, abbr. to 滬|沪[Hù]

Component uses

Meaning component in 3 characters (1 verified)

云 忐 尗

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

让

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

卡

Simplified component in 1 character (1 verified)

让

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*Cə-daŋʔ

dzyangX

shàng

ascend

*m-daŋʔ

dzyangX

shàng

to put up

*daŋʔ-s

dzyangH

shàng

top, above (n.)


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.9519% of movies

30th most common character in movies

16th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Unicode

U+4E0A

Shuowen

“丄，高也。此古文上，指事也。上，篆文丄。”


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