朝

In the oracle bone script, it was an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 2 or 4 屮 (“grass”) or even 木 (“tree”) + 日 (“sun”) + 月 (“moon”) – the sun rising above the ground while the waning moon is still in the sky – the morning.

In the bronze script, it was a compound of 𠦝 and a pictograph of a river (川 or 水) – this was possibly an original form for 潮 (OC *r'ew, “tide”). The river glyph may be a corruption of 月 due to association with tides or diurnal events. Chi (2010) considers such forms to be phono-semantic (形聲 /形声), where 𠦝 is the abbreviated form of the phonetic 朝 (OC *ʔr'ew, *r'ew). In the some late Western Zhou forms, 𠦝 was corrupted into a form resembling 車.

According to Guo Moruo, in the stone drum inscriptions (石鼓文 (shígǔwén), likely from the Spring and Autumn period) 㫃 was added (attached to 車), and the river glyph was replaced with 舟 (OC *tjɯw), which was interpreted as the phonetic component; the small seal script might have inherited from this form. Shuowen interpreted the fused components of 𠦝 and 㫃 as a semantic component 倝 (“dawn”). However, the accuracy of identification has been questioned; the character was a heavily weathered one in which the 㫃 identification was probably spurious and likely influenced by the Shuowen. Meanwhile, the 舟 component on the right remained somewhat legible.

The 舟 component remained in the bamboo and wooden slips of the Warring States period (see the table). In the clerical script since the Han dynasty, 舟 had been reverted to 月; it is unclear whether this was a remnant from 月 in the oracle bone script or a corruption of 舟 (as in 朕 < 𦩎 and many other characters). The current form is essentially inherited from the clerical script.

“Morning” > “perform the morning ceremony” > “to go/come to court; to have an audience”. Derivative: 潮 (OC *r'ew, “morning tide”).

Perhaps related to Thai เพรา (prao, “morning”) (Manomaivibool, 1975).