民

See also: 艮 and 良

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Historical forms of the character 民
Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形).

Two interpretations exist.

1. A pictogram of an eye pierced by a dagger, a practice conducted to enslave a person. The character originally means "slave".
2. A pictogram of a woman with vagina emphasized: breasts on top (compare 母 and 女), vagina at cross on bottom (in previous forms often a dot instead): the source of people, hence “populace”.

Han character

民 (radical 83 氏+1, 5 strokes, cangjie input 口女心 (RVP), four-corner 7774₇)

Derived characters

• 眠 氓 罠 囻

References

• KangXi: page 598, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17028
• Dae Jaweon: page 988, character 32
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2131, character 1
• Unihan data for U+6C11

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		民

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): mín (min²)

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄧㄣˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): man⁴
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): mìn
• Min Dong (BUC): mìng
• Min Nan (POJ): bîn
• Wu (Wiktionary): min (T3)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: mín
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄧㄣˊ
    • Wade-Giles: min²
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: min
    • IPA ^(key): /min³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: man⁴
    • Yale: màhn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: man⁴
    • IPA ^(key): /mɐn²¹/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: mìn
    • Hakka Romanization System: minˇ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: min²
    • IPA: /min¹¹/
• Min Dong
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: mìng
    • IPA ^(key): /miŋ⁵³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bîn
    • Tâi-lô: bîn
    • Phofsit Daibuun: biin
    • IPA (Taipei): /bin²⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /bin¹³/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • Wiktionary: min (T3)
    • IPA ^(key): /mɪɲ²³/

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• Middle Chinese: /miɪn/▼

Rime
Character	民
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	明 (4)
Final (韻)	眞 (43)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	彌鄰切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/miɪn/
Pan Wuyun	/min/
Shao Rongfen	/mjen/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/min/
Li Rong	/miĕn/
Wang Li	/mĭĕn/
Bernard Karlgren	/mi̯ĕn/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	mín

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*mi[ŋ]/

  (Zhengzhang): /*min/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	民
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	mín
Middle Chinese	‹ mjin ›
Old Chinese	/*mi[ŋ]/
English	people
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	民
Reading #	1/1
No.	9130
Phonetic component	民
Rime group	眞
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	民
Old Chinese	/*min/

Definitions

民

1. people; citizens

Compounds

• 民間／民间 (mínjiān)
• 人民 (rénmín)

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #1670”, 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.

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Japanese

Kanji

民

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. nation, peoples

Readings

• Goon: みん (min)
• Kan’on: びん (bin)
• Kun: たみ (tami)
• Nanori: たみ (tami), ひと (hito), み (mi), みたみ (mitami), もと (moto)

Compounds

国民 (こくみん) ‎(kokumin) 市民 (しみん) ‎(shimin) 市民活動 (しみんかつどう) ‎(shiminkatsudō) 万民 (ばんみん) ‎(banmin): all the people, the entire nation 民意 (みんい) ‎(min'i)

民間 (みんかん) ‎(minkan) 民業 (みんぎょう) ‎(mingyō) 民権 (みんけん) ‎(minken) 民主 (みんしゅ) ‎(minshu)

民衆 (みんしゅう) ‎(minshū) 民主主義 (みんしゅしゅぎ) ‎(minshushugi) 民族 (みんぞく) ‎(minzoku) 民族主義 (みんぞくしゅぎ) ‎(minzokushugi)

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Korean

Hanja

民 • ‎(min)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 민 (McCune-Reischauer: min, Yale: min)

• Name (hangeul): 백성 (revised: baekseong, McCune-Reischauer: paeksŏng, Yale: paykseng)

1. (백성): the people, the populace, the nation

Compounds

民家 ‎(민가, min-ga) 民間 ‎(민간, mingan) 民權 ‎(민권, mingwon) 民道 ‎(민도, mindo) 民亂 ‎(민란, minran) 民泊 ‎(민박, minbag) 民法 ‎(민법, minbeob) 民兵 ‎(민병, minbyeong) 民事 ‎(민사, minsa) 民生 ‎(민생, minsaeng) 民選 ‎(민선, minseon)

民俗 ‎(민속, minsog) 民心 ‎(민심, minsim) 民營 ‎(민영, minyeong) 民謠 ‎(민요, minyo) 民願 ‎(민원, minwon) 民意 ‎(민의, minui) 民政 ‎(민정, minjeong) 民族 ‎(민족, minjog) 民主 ‎(민주, minju) 民衆 ‎(민중, minjung) 民弊 ‎(민폐, minpye)

公民 ‎(공민, gongmin) 僑民 ‎(교민, gyomin) 國民 ‎(국민, gukmin) 農民 ‎(농민, nongmin) 常民 ‎(상민, sangmin) 庶民 ‎(서민, seomin) 選民 ‎(선민, seonmin) 市民 ‎(시민, simin) 人民 ‎(인민, inmin) 住民 ‎(주민, jumin) 平民 ‎(평민, pyeongmin)

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Vietnamese

Han character

民 (dân, rân)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Noun

民

1. Hán tự form of dân