jīng

capital city

Original meaning: 

high place

Pictograph of a tall building. Similar to . Based on the original meaning "high place". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "capital city".

Evolution

京 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
京 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
京 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
京 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
京 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

jīng

capital city; capital city of a country; big; algebraic term for a large number (old); artificial mound (old)

 

Jīng

abbr. for Beijing; surname Jing; Jing ethnic minority

Most common words with 京
Freq.
Word
Meaning

北京

Peking

东京

Tokyo, capital of Japan

big

南京

capital of China at different historical periods

北京时间

Chinese Standard Time

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Sound component in 17 characters (8 verified)

Iconic component in 2 characters (2 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]raŋ

kjaeng

jīng

hill; capital city


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 6.2790% of movies

1777th most common character in movies

566th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+4EAC

Shuowen

“京,人所為絕高丘也。从高省,丨象高形。”


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