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

Stroke order

Han character

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

Derived characters

• Appendix:Chinese radical/己
• 包 (Chinese form)
• 导

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: 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

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		巳

Glyph origin

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

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).

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 巳

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

Coordinate terms

• Template:list:earthly branches/zh

References

• (Min Nan) “Entry #210”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

Etymology 2

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

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Japanese

Kanji

巳

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

1. sign of the snake

Readings

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

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
巳
み Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Short for 蛇 (hemi, “snake”)

Pronunciation

• Homophones: 身, 実, 子

Proper noun

巳(み) • (Mi) 

1. the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
巳
し Jinmeiyō
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 巳 (zi^X).

Proper noun

巳(し) • (Shi) 

1. the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches

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Korean

Hanja

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

1. the hours from 9 to 11
2. 6th terrestrial branch

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Vietnamese

Han character

巳: Hán Nôm readings: tị

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