xiāng, xiàng
mutual
Original meaning:
look at
Depicts an eye (目) looking at a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "look at". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to "compare" and "each other".
Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)Regular script
Modernxiāng
mutual, reciprocal, each other; each other; one another; mutually; fret on the neck of a pipa 琵琶[pípa] (a fret on the soundboard is called a 品[pǐn])
Xiāng
surname Xiang
xiàng
appearance; portrait; picture; government minister; (physics) phase; (literary) to appraise (esp. by scrutinizing physical features); to read sb's fortune (by physiognomy, palmistry etc)
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
to believe | ||
related | ||
appearance | ||
equivalent to | ||
the truth about sth |
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[s]aŋ | sjang | xiāng | mutually |
*[s]aŋ-s | sjangH | xiàng | appearance, quality |
HSK level 2
Appears in 97.8536% of movies
172nd most common character in movies
152nd most common character in books
Strokes | 9 |
Unicode | U+76F8 |
Shuowen | “相，省視也。从目，从木。《易》曰：‘地可觀者莫可觀於木。’《詩》曰：‘相鼠有皮。’” |
季旭昇《說文新證》p.267
