巳

See also: 己 and 已

巳	U+5DF3, 巳 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5DF3

← 已
[U+5DF2]

CJK Unified Ideographs

巴 →
[U+5DF4]

⺒	U+2E92, ⺒ CJK RADICAL SNAKE

← ⺑
[U+2E91]

CJK Radicals Supplement

⺓ →
[U+2E93]

Translingual[edit]

Stroke order

Han character[edit]

See images of
Radical 49 巳

巳 (Kangxi radical 49, 己+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 口山 (RU), four-corner 7771₇, composition ⿺乚コ)

Derived characters[edit]

References[edit]

KangXi: page 326, character 12
Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8744
Dae Jaweon: page 631, character 1
Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 984, character 2
Unihan data for U+5DF3

Chinese[edit]

simp. and trad.		巳

Glyph origin[edit]

Historical forms of the character 巳
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (巳) (Zhengzhang, 2003)

	Old Chinese
巳	ljɯʔ, lɯs
祀	*ljɯʔ
汜	*ljɯʔ
戺	*zrɯʔ
起	*kʰɯʔ
熙	*qʰlɯ
媐	qʰlɯ, lɯ
圯	*lɯ
异	lɯ, lɯs
巸	*lɯ

Two different theories:

Pictogram (象形) of a snake (therefore, it should be similar to 巴). This theory is found in the Shuowen Jiezi;
Pictogram (象形) of a fetus (it can be seen in 包, 胞. In 包, the radical should represent the placenta. 胞 today means "cell").

The character is similar to 已, which cannot be found in the Shuowen Jiezi.

Etymology 1[edit]

巳 (OC s-ləʔ) displaced 子 (OC tsəʔ), the original sixth earthly branch which denoted the moon's "coming forth" stage (i.e. early waning-gibbous phase) "due to phonological closeness (combined with the semantic opacity of the Branch terms at later eras)" (Smith, 2011).

Association with the snake was possibly arbitrary, analogous to how 辰, the fifth earthly branch, was arbitrarily associated with the dragon (Ferlus, 2013).

Pronunciation[edit]

Mandarin
(Pinyin): sì (si⁴)

(Zhuyin): ㄙˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): zi⁶
Min Nan
(Hokkien, POJ): sǐr / sū / chī

(Teochew, Peng'im): zi⁶
Wu (Wugniu)
- (Shanghainese): ⁶zy

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: sì
  - Zhuyin: ㄙˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: sìh
  - Wade–Giles: ssŭ⁴
  - Yale: sz̀
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: syh
  - Palladius: сы (sy)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /sz̩⁵¹/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: zi⁶
  - Yale: jih
  - Cantonese Pinyin: dzi⁶
  - Guangdong Romanization: ji⁶
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡siː²²/
Min Nan
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sǐr
  - Tâi-lô: sǐr
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /sɯ²²/
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, General Taiwanese)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sū
  - Tâi-lô: sū
  - Phofsit Daibuun: su
  - IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /su³³/
  - IPA (Xiamen): /su²²/
- (Hokkien: General Taiwanese, Zhangzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chī
  - Tâi-lô: tsī
  - Phofsit Daibuun: ci
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡ɕi²²/
  - IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /t͡ɕi³³/

Note: chī - vernacular, sū - literary.

- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: zi⁶
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: tsĭ
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡si³⁵/
Wu
- (Shanghainese)
  - Wugniu: ⁶zy
  - Wiktionary Romanisation: ³zr
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /zz̩²³/

Middle Chinese: ziX

Rime
Character	巳
Reading #	2/3
Initial (聲)	邪 (17)
Final (韻)	之 (19)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	詳里切
Baxter	ziX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/zɨ^X/
Pan Wuyun	/zɨ^X/
Shao Rongfen	/zie^X/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/zɨ^X/
Li Rong	/ziə^X/
Wang Li	/zĭə^X/
Bernard Karlgren	/zi^X/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	sì
Expected Cantonese Reflex	zi⁶

Old Chinese
(Baxter–Sagart): /*s-[ɢ]əʔ/

(Zhengzhang): /*ljɯʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	巳
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	sì
Middle Chinese	‹ zi^X ›
Old Chinese	/*s-[ɢ]əʔ/
English	6th earthly branch
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. [t] as coda may in fact be -t or -p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	巳
Reading #	1/2
No.	12007
Phonetic component	巳
Rime group	之
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	似
Old Chinese	/*ljɯʔ/

Definitions[edit]

巳

sixth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
snake (蛇) of Chinese zodiac

Coordinate terms[edit]

(earthly branches) 地支 (dìzhī); 子, 丑 (chǒu), 寅 (yín), 卯 (mǎo), 辰 (chén), 巳 (sì), 午 (wǔ), 未 (wèi), 申 (shēn), 酉 (yǒu), 戌, 亥 (hài)

Compounds[edit]

上巳 (Shàngsì)
巳時／巳时 (sìshí)
巳蛇

References[edit]

(Min Nan) “Entry #210”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

Etymology 2[edit]

For pronunciation and definitions of 巳 – see 已 (“to stop; to finish; already; have done something; etc.”). (This character, 巳, is a variant form of 已.)

Japanese[edit]

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

巳

Wikipedia ^ja

Kanji[edit]

巳

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

sign of the snake

Readings[edit]

Go-on: じ (ji)
Kan-on: し (shi)
Kun: み (mi, 巳)

Etymology 1[edit]

Kanji in this term
巳
み Jinmeiyō
kun’yomi

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

巳

Wikipedia ^ja

Short for 蛇 (hemi, “snake”)

Pronunciation[edit]

(Tokyo) み [mì] (Heiban – [0])
IPA^(key): [mʲi]

Homophones: 身, 実, 子

Proper noun[edit]

巳(み) • (Mi)

the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches

Etymology 2[edit]

Kanji in this term
巳
し Jinmeiyō
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 巳 (zi^X).

Proper noun[edit]

巳(し) • (Shi)

the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches

Korean[edit]

Hanja[edit]

巳 • (sa) (hangeul 사, revised sa, McCune–Reischauer sa, Yale sa)

the hours from 9 to 11
6th terrestrial branch