Definitions

square bamboo container for food or clothing

Etymology phono-semantic

bamboo

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

Reflecting early Chinese material culture, the character is composed of (bamboo radical) indicating a bamboo object, and as phonetic, which also means 'to manage' and hints at a container for organizing. It denotes a square or rectangular woven bamboo trunk, box, or hamper for storing clothing, food, or scrolls. In modern Chinese, it is literary and historical, appearing almost only in classical texts and idioms about scholarly knowledge stored in boxes.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern