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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

向

xiàng
to face
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 3
  • radical 口
  • 6 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
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  • meaning component
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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 宀 (“house”) + 口 (“mouth”), echos in a place. The original form of 響 (OC *qʰaŋʔ). It was borrowed to represent 𠨍 (嚮) later. The mouth does not represent an opening as in 高 and 谷. Compare 冋.

; “ACG: for (directed at, intended to belong to)”

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • simplified fromChinese曏 “in the near past; in the past; formerly”
    • meaningChinese日 “Sun”
    • soundChinese鄉 “township”
      • ideaChinese𠨍 “order, regulation”
      • ideaChinese皀 “Prepared food, a vessel full of food (as in 即 and 既, in which is simplified)”
  • ideaChinese宀 “a type of deep house with walls on all four sides, a roof, a main hall, and back rooms”
  • ideaChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”

Words built on it: 方向, 一向

Meanings

character
  1. to face
  2. to side with; to favour; to discriminate in favour of
  3. to lean; to slant; to tilt; to list; to slope; to incline
  4. to stoop; to bend down
  5. to monopolize food
  6. to expect; to hope; to favor

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

向：北出牖也。从宀从口。《詩》曰：“塞向墐戶。”

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 方位。 例：去向、暈頭轉向
  2. 面對著、朝著。 例：向陽、相向、向前看
  3. 意志之歸趨。 例：志向、意向
  4. 先前、以前。 例：向來、一向
  5. 偏袒、偏愛。 例：爸爸總是向著小妹。
  6. 臨近、接近。 例：向晚

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

How 向 was written 字形演變

  1. 向 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 向 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 向 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 向 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 向 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
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 向