Chinese Character Wiki
簡

jiǎn

simple

Original meaning: 

bamboo strips for writing

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and 間 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "bamboo strips for writing". The meaning later shifted to "letter", "concise", and "simple".

Components
⺮ meaning component

⺮  Meaning component

zhú

  

bamboo

⺮ is a component form of 竹.

間 sound component

間  Sound component

jiān, jiàn

  

space

Evolution

簡 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
簡 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

简 (簡) 

jiǎn

simple, terse, succinct; letter; simple; uncomplicated; to choose; to select; bamboo strips used for writing (old)

Most common words with 簡
Freq.
Word
Meaning

简单

simple

简直

simply

简称

abbreviation

简

simple

简历

résumé

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*kˤre[n]ʔ

keanX

jiǎn

bamboo slip for writing

*kˤre[n]ʔ

keanX

jiǎn

select, large-minded, etc.


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 72.0006% of movies

551st most common character in movies

716th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

18

Simplified

简

Unicode

U+7C21

Shuowen

“簡，牒也。从竹，間聲。”


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