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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

升

shēng
sheng, equal to 10 合 (gě)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 十
  • 4 strokes
  • 昇
  • 陞

Etymology graph

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) of a dipper, compare 斗.

Perhaps a causative of 乘 (OC *ɦljɯŋ, *ɦljɯŋs, “to ascend”); may be cognate with 騰 (OC *l'ɯːŋ, “to rise”) (Schuessler, 2007), or a doublet of 興 (OC *qʰɯŋ, *qʰɯŋs, “to rise”) (Bodman, 1980).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese千 “thousand”
    • meaningChinese一 “one”
    • soundChinese人 “man; person; people (Classifier: 個／个 m c; 隻／只 h)”
  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”

Words built on it: 飛, 上升, 提升

Meanings

character
  1. sheng, equal to 10 合 (gě)
  2. litre (unit of measure for volume, chiefly for liquid measure, equal to one thousandth of the cubic metre)
  3. to rise; to go up; to soar; to ascend (literally or figuratively)
  4. to raise; to lift; to elevate; to promote
  5. 46th hexagram of the I Ching; ䷭
  6. used in 升平 (shēngpíng, “peaceful”)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

升：十龠也。从斗，亦象形。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 使由下而上。與「降」相對。 例：升旗、升官、升級　◎
  2. 登。 例：升堂
  3. 量詞。計算容量的單位。公制一升等於十合。亦稱為公升。
  4. 六十四卦之一。巽（☴）下坤（☷）上。表示亨通之意。

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

How 升 was written 字形演變

  1. 升 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 升 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 升 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 升 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 升 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 升 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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 升