巳 - Wikiwand

More information simp. and trad. ...

simp. and trad.		巳

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 巳, Shang ...

Historical forms of the character 巳
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

More information Old Chinese ...

	Old Chinese
巳	ljɯʔ, lɯs
祀	*ljɯʔ
汜	*ljɯʔ
戺	*zrɯʔ
起	*kʰɯʔ
熙	*qʰlɯ
媐	qʰlɯ, lɯ
圯	*lɯ
异	lɯ, lɯs
巸	*lɯ

Characters in the same phonetic series (巳) (Zhengzhang, 2003)

Two different theories:

Pictogram (象形) of a fetus (it can be seen in 包, 胞. In 包, the radical should represent the placenta. 胞 today means "cell").
Pictogram (象形) of a snake (therefore, it should be similar to 巴). This theory is found in the Shuowen Jiezi, which however is not based on oracle bones versions of characters.

The character is similar to 已, which cannot be found in the Shuowen Jiezi.

Etymology 1

巳 (OC s-ləʔ) displaced 子 (OC tsəʔ), the original sixth earthly branch which denoted the moon's "coming forth" stage (i.e. early waning-gibbous phase) "due to phonological closeness (combined with the semantic opacity of the Branch terms at later eras)" (Smith, 2011).

Association with the snake was possibly arbitrary, analogous to how 辰, the fifth earthly branch, was arbitrarily associated with the dragon (Ferlus, 2013).

Pronunciation

More information Rime, Character ...

Rime
Character	巳
Reading #	2/3
Initial (聲)	邪 (17)
Final (韻)	之 (19)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	詳里切
Baxter	ziX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/zɨ^X/
Pan Wuyun	/zɨ^X/
Shao Rongfen	/zie^X/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/zɨ^X/
Li Rong	/ziə^X/
Wang Li	/zĭə^X/
Bernhard Karlgren	/zi^X/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	sì
Expected Cantonese Reflex	zi⁶

More information Character, Reading # ...

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	巳
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	sì
Middle Chinese	‹ zi^X ›
Old Chinese	/*s-[ɢ]əʔ/
English	6th earthly branch
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. [t] as coda may in fact be -t or -p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	巳
Reading #	1/2
No.	12007
Phonetic component	巳
Rime group	之
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	似
Old Chinese	/*ljɯʔ/

Mandarin
(Pinyin): sì (si⁴)

(Zhuyin): ㄙˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): zi⁶
Hakka
(Sixian, PFS): sṳ

(Hailu, HRS): sii^˖
Eastern Min (BUC): sê̤ṳ
Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): si⁵ / so⁵
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): sǐr / sū / chī

(Teochew, Peng'im): zi⁶
Wu (Shanghai, Wugniu): ⁶zy

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: sì
  - Zhuyin: ㄙˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: sìh
  - Wade–Giles: ssŭ⁴
  - Yale: sz̀
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: syh
  - Palladius: сы (sy)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /sz̩⁵¹/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
  - Jyutping: zi⁶
  - Yale: jih
  - Cantonese Pinyin: dzi⁶
  - Guangdong Romanization: ji⁶
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡siː²²/
Hakka
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
  - Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: sṳ
  - Hakka Romanization System: sii
  - Hagfa Pinyim: si⁴
  - Sinological IPA: /sɨ⁵⁵/
- (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
  - Hakka Romanization System: sii^˖
  - Sinological IPA: /sɨ³³/
Eastern Min
- (Fuzhou)
  - Bàng-uâ-cê: sê̤ṳ
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /søy²⁴²/
Puxian Min
- (Putian, Xianyou)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: si⁵
  - Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: sī
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɬi²¹/
- (Putian)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: so⁵
  - Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: seō
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɬo²¹/
- (Xianyou)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: so⁵
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɬɵ²¹/

Note:

si5 - vernacular (e.g. 巳蛇);
so5 - literary (e.g. 辰巳).

Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sǐr
  - Tâi-lô: sǐr
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /sɯ²²/
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, General Taiwanese)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sū
  - Tâi-lô: sū
  - Phofsit Daibuun: su
  - IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /su³³/
  - IPA (Xiamen): /su²²/
- (Hokkien: General Taiwanese, Zhangzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chī
  - Tâi-lô: tsī
  - Phofsit Daibuun: ci
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡si²²/
  - IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /t͡si³³/

Note: chī - vernacular, sū - literary.

- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: zi⁶
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tsĭ
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡si³⁵/
Wu
- (Northern: Shanghai)
  - Wugniu: ⁶zy
  - MiniDict: zy^去
  - Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ³zr
  - Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /zz̩²³/

Middle Chinese: ziX

Old Chinese
(Baxter–Sagart): /*s-[ɢ]əʔ/

(Zhengzhang): /*ljɯʔ/

Definitions

巳

sixth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
snake (蛇) of Chinese zodiac

Coordinate terms

(Chinese earthly branches) 地支 (dìzhī); 子 (zǐ), 丑 (chǒu), 寅 (yín), 卯 (mǎo), 辰 (chén), 巳 (sì), 午, 未 (wèi), 申 (shēn), 酉 (yǒu), 戌 (xū), 亥 (hài) ^{(Category: zh:Chinese earthly branches)}

Compounds

上巳 (Shàngsì)
巳時 / 巳时 (sìshí)
巳蛇

References

(Min Nan) “巳”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 巳 – see 已 (“to stop; to finish; already; have done something; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 已).

References

“巳”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “巳”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 164.

巳

Translingual

Han character

Derived characters

References

Chinese

Glyph origin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Definitions

Coordinate terms

Compounds

References

Etymology 2

References

Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

Wikiwand - on