About
The character "汉" derives from its traditional counterpart "漢", a phono-semantic compound whose water radical indicates its original meaning as the name of the Han River, a major waterway in China. This geographical term was adopted as the title for the Han Dynasty when Liu Bang, having been enfeoffed as the King of Han, founded the dynasty, thus transferring the character's primary reference from a river to a historical era. Subsequently, the meaning broadened to denote the ethnic group that formed the core population during that dynasty and continued to dominate the cultural and linguistic landscape of the region, ultimately signifying the Han Chinese people and their language. The structure of "漢" incorporates the water radical with a phonetic element, while the simplified form "汉" maintains the semantic water component but substitutes the phonetic with a graphically simpler element.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
我会说汉语。
汉字很难写。
他买了一个汉堡。
姐姐喜欢穿汉服。
汉族是中国的主要民族。
武汉是一座美丽的城市。
这本汉英词典很有用。
汉代在历史上非常强盛。