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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

則

zé
rule; law; regulation
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 4
  • TOCFL 6
  • radical 刀
  • 9 strokes
  • 積
  • 积

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 鼎 (“ding, a bronze cauldron for cooking or sacrificial rituals”) + 刂 (“knife”); hence, the original version is 𠟭. Perhaps it's a reference to carving something (e.g., characters) with a knife on a bronze. Its original meaning was "rule; law".

鼎 was simplified to the unrelated 貝 in the small seal script. Compare 貞 (OC *teŋ, “to divine; righteous; firm”) (< 鼑), which underwent the same stylization.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • ideaChinese鼎 “ding (ancient large, three-legged bronze cauldron for cooking or sacrificial rituals)”
  • ideaChinese刀 “knife; blade (Classifier: 把 m c g h j mb md w x; 張／张 c h; 叢／丛 mn; 支 mn mn-t)”

Words built on it: 測

Meanings

character
  1. rule; law; regulation
  2. standard; example
  3. to follow an example
  4. Classifier for news, writings, stories, or narratives: item
  5. conjunction used to indicate sequence of events; and; and then
  6. conjunction used to indicate cause and effect; so; thus

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

則：等畫物也。从刀从貝。貝，古之物貨也。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 規範、榜樣。 例：準則、以身作則
  2. 法度、規章。 例：法則、細則、青年守則
  3. 效法。 例：則天、則古
  4. 做。 例：則甚、則聲
  5. 便、就。 例：學如逆水行舟，不進則退。
  6. 量詞。計算文字分項段落的單位。 例：一則消息、三則寓言、試題二則

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 則 was written 字形演變

  1. 則 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 則 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 則 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 則 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 則 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 則