Definitions

zhāng place name

Etymology phono-semantic

city

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character has the phonetic on the left and the city/state radical on the right, marking it as a geographical or administrative term. It originally referred to an ancient state and several city names in what is now Shandong province. In some historical texts, was used interchangeably with the character (a phonetic sibling) to mean a physical barrier, screen, or defensive frontier wall, before the two characters diverged.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Seal etymology image
Seal Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern