中

埤

Unicode: U+57E4

Pinyin: bēi bì pí

Variants:壀陴𡌨𡌸𡌹𡐕𡐫𣁄

Definition

pí:* 增加。 ~益。 pì:* 〔~堄〕城上矮墙

add, increase, attach; low fence

Structure

Related substructures

Precursors

Oracle Bone Script
c. 1300–1050 BCE (Late Shang)
Inscriptions carved on turtle plastrons and animal bones for divination and record-keeping in the late Shang royal court; the oldest large attested corpus of written Chinese.Wikipedia ->
43_F4E143_F4E2
Qin Script
c. 475–206 BCE (Qin, Warring States → Qin dynasty)
Qin-area character forms attested on bamboo/wood slips (e.g., Shuihudi, deposited 217 BCE), overlapping chronologically with the standardization of seal script and the emergence of clerical tendencies.Wikipedia ->
71_EDB3
Small Seal Script
Standardized 221–206 BCE (Qin); developed earlier in Qin
The standardized seal script promulgated after Qin’s unification, based on earlier Qin seal forms and used as an empire-wide norm.Wikipedia ->
27_57E4
Clerical Script
c. 300 BCE–220 CE (emerged late Warring States/Qin; dominant Han)
A practical script that evolved from late Warring States/Qin writing; it matured and became dominant in the Han dynasty, favoring faster, more rectilinear strokes.Wikipedia ->
71_EDB394_E59694_E59794_E598
Transmitted Pre-Qin Forms
Pre-Qin forms (≤221 BCE) / late 2nd century BCE onward (Han → later textual transmission)
Pre-Qin character forms preserved through later textual transmission (often discussed as the 'Old Text' / guwen tradition). Shaped by repeated copying, they can diverge from excavated Warring States materials.Wikipedia ->
85_EC3F85_EC4085_EC4185_EC42
Liushutong Seal Forms
Pre-Qin to Han seal-type forms (≤220 CE) / compiled 1661 (Min Qiji); collated and printed 1720 (Bi Hongshu)
A ten-volume compendium of seal-script variants arranged by the rhymes of Hongwu Zhengyun: each head character gives its Shuowen small seal form, then variants gathered from guwen, zhouwen, bronze inscriptions and Qin–Han seals. Long a standard reference for seal carvers, but the forms are compiled rather than excavated and were collected with little vetting, so many are of doubtful authenticity.Wikimedia Commons ->
L62_3A2