Skip to content

tāng

Character evolution

Hover to feel · click to explore

Simplified · Today

Shuowen

汤. In oracle bone script the character shows the water radical (氵) beside the component 昜, which originally depicted a vessel of hot liquid with steam rising, indicating "hot water" or "soup". The water radical signals the liquid, while 昜 serves as both a phonetic and a semantic element representing heat, explaining why the modern form is written with 氵 and 昜.

Pinyin

tāng· HSK 2