漢字Kanji · in Human Body & People
臣: retainer, subject
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone, bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
シンshin · on'yomi · in compounds
- 臣下しんかretainer
- 家臣かしんvassal, retainer
- 重臣じゅうしんchief vassal, senior statesman
- 忠臣ちゅうしんloyal retainer, loyal subject
ジンjin · on'yomi
- 大臣だいじんcabinet minister
- 総理大臣そうりだいじんPrime Minister
Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A vertical eye of a man looking downwards. As an individual character it has taken on the meanings “slave; servant; minister”, while the meaning relating to eyes appears when used as a radical, such as in 臨 (“to look down at”) and 監 (“to inspect”).
Source: Wiktionary, 臣 (rev. 92201464), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for a government minister or a loyal retainer, the fundamental symbol of civil service and high-ranking duty.”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · chén
Same form: 臣 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 臣 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 臣 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin chén most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.