朕

Han character

朕 (Kangxi radical 74, 月+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 月廿大 (BTK), four-corner 7823₄, composition ⿰月关)

Glyph origin

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

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

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Simplified from 𦩎 (舟 → 月 and 灷 → 关), corruption of an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 舟 (“boat”) + 丨 (“item”) + 廾 (“two hands”), seen in the oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions, originally meaning “to mend a boat”. It was later borrowed phonetically to be used as an honorific first-person pronoun.

Pronunciation

Definitions

朕

1. (imperial) I; my (similar to the royal we; reserved for use by the emperor since the Qin Dynasty)

   • 爾無不信，朕不食言。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     尔无不信，朕不食言。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Book of Documents, circa 4^th – 3^rd century BCE

     Ěr wú bù xìn, zhèn bù shíyán. [Pinyin]

     On no account disbelieve me - I will not go back on my word.

   • 朕為始皇帝。後世以計數，二世三世至于萬世，傳之無窮。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     朕为始皇帝。后世以计数，二世三世至于万世，传之无穷。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Zhèn wèi Shǐhuángdì. Hòushì yǐ jìshù, èrshì sānshì zhìyú wànshì, chuán zhī wúqióng. [Pinyin]

     We ourselves shall be called First Emperor, and successive generations shall be numbered consecutively: Second, Third, and so on until for 1,000 or 10,000 generations, the succession passing down without end.

   • 二世與趙高謀曰：「朕年少，初即位，黔首未集附。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     二世与赵高谋曰：「朕年少，初即位，黔首未集附。」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Èrshì yǔ Zhào Gāo móu yuē: “Zhèn niánshào, chū jíwèi, qiánshǒu wèi jífù.” [Pinyin]

     Qin Er Shi discussed with Zhao Gao, "I am young and just ascended the throne. The mass has not submitted to my rule."

   • 帝問曰：「朕應天受命，卿何以不樂？」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     帝问曰：「朕应天受命，卿何以不乐？」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Liu Yiqing (editor), A New Account of the Tales of the World, 5^th century CE

     Dì wèn yuē: “Zhèn yìngtiānshòumìng, qīng héyǐ bù yuè?” [Pinyin]

     King Wen of Wei asked,"I conform to the wish of Heaven and become the emperor. Why are you unhappy?"

2. (literary) omen; sign
3. (Cantonese) Alternative form of 𠹻 (zam6, “classifier for smells”)

Compounds

Descendants

References

• 许锦晶 [Xu, Jinjing] (2017) “人称代词“朕”源头考察 [Probe into the Origin of Personal Pronoun “朕” (zhèn)]”, in Sinologia Hispanica, China Studies Review‎
• “朕”, 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–
• “朕”, 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.
• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “朕”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 307.