wén

writing

Pictograph of a man with writing (possibly a tattoo) on his chest. In later scripts the writing was abbreviated to a dot or omitted altogether.

Evolution

文 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
文 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
文 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

wén

literature, culture, writing; language; culture; writing; formal; literary; gentle; (old) classifier for coins; Kangxi radical 67

 

Wén

surname Wen

Most common words with 文
Freq.
Word
Meaning

文化

culture

文件

document

language

文章

article

文明

civilized

Component uses

Meaning component in 10 characters (2 verified)

Sound component in 12 characters (2 verified)

Simplified component in 2 characters (2 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*mə[n]

mjun

wén

ornate


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 59.9551% of movies

481st most common character in movies

148th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+6587

Shuowen

“文,錯畫也。象交文。”


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