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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

興

xīng
to rise; to get up
  • Ideogrammatic compound 會意
  • HSK 1
  • radical 臼
  • 16 strokes

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Origin

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意) – four hands (舁) lifting an object.

In oracle bone script and early bronze inscriptions, the central object had various shapes (such as a lifting tray, sometimes resembling 井). It eventually standardized into 同 in later scripts.

Compare perhaps Burmese ရွှင် (hrwang, “to rejoice, be abundant”) (Luce, 1981).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

Related: Burmese ရွှင်

Words built on it: 高興

Meanings

character
  1. to rise; to get up
  2. to thrive; to prosper; to flourish
  3. prosperous; flourishing
  4. to be popular; to be fashionable
  5. to start; to build; to establish
  6. to elect; to promote

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

興：起也。从舁从同。同力也。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 情致、趣味。 例：助興、盡興、掃興
  2. 《詩》六義之一。藉其他事物以引發起所敘說事物的詩歌寫作方法。

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

How 興 was written 字形演變

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