About
嬗 is a phono-semantic compound with the semantic radical 女 (nǚ, woman) on the left and the phonetic component 亶 (dǎn) on the right. While it originally described a woman's graceful demeanor, its meaning evolved to denote succession, transition, and transformation across generations. In classical and modern Chinese, it is most commonly found in the compound 嬗变 (shànbiàn), meaning a profound change, evolution, or metamorphosis in nature, society, or dynasties.
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