中

郵

Unicode: U+90F5

Pinyin: yóu chuí

Variants:邮𨛀𨜚𨜲𨞄

Definition

yóu:* 驛站。古時傳遞文書、供應食宿和車馬的館舍。 * 古時傳送文書的人。 * 傳送;郵寄。 * 田間舍。 * 通""。①過失,罪過。 * 姓。 chuí:* 古地名

postal, mail; post office

Structure

Related substructures

Precursors

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_E6D971_E6DA
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_90F5
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_E6D971_E6DA92_EC2892_EC2992_EC2A92_EC2B92_EC2C92_EC2792_EC2D92_EC2E
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 ->
82_F847
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_290L62_291