zhèn

pronoun 'I'

Original meaning: 

seal up a crack

Originally depicted two hands () holding an object () to patch up a hole in a boat (), representing the meaning "seal a crack". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components
舟 iconic component

  Iconic component

zhōu

  

boat

Depicts a boat. Modern form looks like unrelated .

◎ iconic component

  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts a hole in a boat being plugged up.

廾 iconic component

  Iconic component

gǒng

  

two hands

Depicts two hands patching a hole in a boat.

Evolution

朕 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
朕 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
朕 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

zhèn

pronoun 'I'; I; we (imperial use); subtle

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

Sound component in 4 characters (2 verified)

Remnant component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*lrəmʔ

drimX

zhèn

I, we, our


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

3054th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+6715

Shuowen

“朕,我也。闕。”


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