Chinese Character Wiki
業

yè

profession

Original meaning: 

attack

Depicts a person (大) carrying a weapon (丵). Based on the original meaning "attack". The meaning later shifted to "expand territory" and "develop business".

Components
丵 iconic component

丵  Iconic component

zhuó

  

chisel

Depicts a chisel-shaped weapon.

大 iconic component

大  Iconic component

dà, dài

  

big

Depicts a person.

Evolution

業 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
業 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
業 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
業 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

业 (業) 

yè

profession, business, trade; line of business; industry; occupation; job; employment; school studies; enterprise; property; (Buddhism) karma; deed; to engage in; already

业 (業) 

Yè

surname Ye

Most common words with 業
Freq.
Word
Meaning

企业

company

职业

occupation

专业

specialty

事业

undertaking

毕业

graduation

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

鄴 嶪

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[m-qʰ](r)[a]p

ngjaep

yè

work (n.)

*[m-qʰ](r)[a]p

ngjaep

yè

horizontal board of a bell stand or frame

*[ŋ](r)[a]p

ngjaep

yè

strong, sturdy


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 69.6140% of movies

490th most common character in movies

130th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Simplified

业

Unicode

U+696D

Shuowen

“業，大版也，所以飾縣鍾鼓，捷業如鋸齒，以白畫之，象其鉏鋙相承也。从丵，从巾，巾象版。《詩》曰：‘巨業維樅。’，古文業。”


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