臣

Translingual

Stroke order

Japanese stroke order

Stroke order (cursive)

Etymology

Historical forms of the character 臣
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) - A vertical eye of a man looking downwards. As the individual character it is used as a metaphor meaning "to surrender", while the meaning relating to eyes appears when used as a radical, such as in 臨 ‎(“to look down at”).

Han character

臣 (radical 131 臣+0, in Chinese 6 strokes, in Japanese 7 strokes, cangjie input 尸中尸中 (SLSL), four-corner 7171₇)

References

• KangXi: page 999, character 13
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30068
• Dae Jaweon: page 1450, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2801, character 1
• Unihan data for U+81E3

---

Chinese

simp. and trad.		臣

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): chén (chen²)

  (Zhuyin): ㄔㄣˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): san⁴
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): chhîn
• Min Dong (BUC): sìng
• Min Nan (POJ): sîn
• Wu (Wiktionary): zen (T3)

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: chén
    • Zhuyin: ㄔㄣˊ
    • Wade-Giles: ch'ên²
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: chenr
    • IPA ^(key): /ʈ͡ʂʰən³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: san⁴
    • Yale: sàhn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: san⁴
    • IPA ^(key): /sɐn²¹/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: chhîn
    • Hakka Romanization System: qin´
    • Hagfa Pinyim: qin¹
    • IPA: /t͡ɕʰin²⁴/
• Min Dong
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: sìng
    • IPA ^(key): /siŋ⁵³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sîn
    • Tâi-lô: sîn
    • Phofsit Daibuun: siin
    • IPA (Taipei): /ɕin²⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /ɕin¹³/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • Wiktionary: zen (T3)
    • IPA ^(key): /z̻əɲ²³/

---

• Middle Chinese: /d͡ʑiɪn/▼

Rime
Character	臣
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	常 (25)
Final (韻)	眞 (43)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	植鄰切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/d͡ʑiɪn/
Pan Wuyun	/d͡ʑin/
Shao Rongfen	/d͡ʑjen/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/d͡ʑin/
Li Rong	/ʑiĕn/
Wang Li	/ʑĭĕn/
Bernard Karlgren	/ʑi̯ĕn/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	chén

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*[ɡ]i[ŋ]/

  (Zhengzhang): /*ɡiŋ/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	臣
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	chén
Middle Chinese	‹ dzyin ›
Old Chinese	/*[ɡ]i[ŋ]/
English	slave, subject
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	臣
Reading #	1/1
No.	1342
Phonetic component	臣
Rime group	眞
Rime subdivision	2
Corresponding MC rime	辰
Old Chinese	/*ɡiŋ/
Notes	甲文臧象以戈刺目爲奴，省戈表不刺者則爲臣，專指役使於家內者

Definitions

臣

1. minister, statesman, official
2. A surname​.

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #2609”, 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.

---

Japanese

Kanji

臣

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: じん (jin)
• Kan’on: しん (shin)
• Kun: おみ (omi), けらい (kerai)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
臣
おみ Grade: 4
kun'yomi

/omi₁/ *[omi] → /omi/ [omi]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [omi]

Noun

臣 ‎(hiragana おみ, romaji omi)

1. one who serves a lord; a vassal, subject

---

Korean

Hanja

臣 • ‎(sin) (hangeul 신)

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

---

Vietnamese

Han character

臣 (thần, thườn)

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