禹

禹 U+79B9, 禹 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-79B9 ← 禸 [U+79B8] CJK Unified Ideographs 禺 → [U+79BA]

Translingual

Han character

禹 (Kangxi radical 114, 禸+4, 9 strokes, cangjie input 竹中月戈 (HLBI), four-corner 2042₇)

1. Yu the Great, legendary founder of the Xia Dynasty

Derived characters

• 偊, 㙖, 𡟥, 𡥶, 𢯺, 渪, 𨺲, 𨕘, 𣈭, 楀, 𪹋, 𤘐, 瑀, 䄔, 𦞇, 𥈋, 𰨰, 竬, 𦔊, 聥, 蝺, 踽, 𫒳, 𩘉, 𪑴, 齲(𮯌/龋)
• 𥝀, 鄅, 𬆪, 𩀌, 𩔔, 㙑, 㝢, 萭, 𰨚, 𥯔, 䨞, 𥝊, 属, 𢉠, 𫭎, 𰍞, 𬍿

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 848, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 24885
• Dae Jaweon: page 1269, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 39, character 11
• Unihan data for U+79B9

Chinese

trad.		禹
simp. #		禹

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 禹
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (禹) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
踽	*kʷaʔ, *kʰʷaʔ
萭	*kʷaʔ, *ɢʷaʔ
聥	*kʷaʔ, *ɢʷaʔ
楀	*kʷaʔ, *ɢʷaʔ
齲	*kʰʷaʔ
禹	*ɢʷaʔ
瑀	*ɢʷaʔ
鄅	*ɢʷaʔ

The Shuowen interprets the character as pictographic (象形) of an animal. The bronze-script character clearly shows the 虫 component.

Etymology

insect

Compare Proto-Tibeto-Burman *was (“honey, bee”) (Benedict, 1972) or semantically closer Proto-Waic *wak "insect" (Schuessler, 2007), the latter from Proto-Palaungic *ʋaːk (“insect, worm”) (Sidwell, 2015).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): yǔ (yu³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄩˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): jyu⁵
• Min Nan (Hokkien, POJ): ú

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yǔ
    • Zhuyin: ㄩˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yǔ
    • Wade–Giles: yü³
    • Yale: yǔ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: yeu
    • Palladius: юй (juj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /y²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: jyu⁵
    • Yale: yúh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: jy⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: yu⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jyː¹³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ú
    • Tâi-lô: ú
    • Phofsit Daibuun: uo
    • IPA (Xiamen): /u⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /u⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /u⁵³/
    • IPA (Taipei): /u⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /u⁴¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: hjuX

Rime
Character	禹
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	云 (35)
Final (韻)	虞 (24)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Closed
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	王矩切
Baxter	hjuX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ɦɨoX/
Pan Wuyun	/ɦioX/
Shao Rongfen	/ɣioX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ɦuə̆X/
Li Rong	/ɣioX/
Wang Li	/ɣĭuX/
Bernard Karlgren	/i̯uX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	yǔ
Expected Cantonese Reflex	jyu5

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[ɢ]ʷ(r)aʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*ɢʷaʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	禹
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	yǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ hjuX ›
Old Chinese	/*[ɢ]ʷ(r)aʔ/
English	insect; proper name
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	禹
Reading #	1/1
No.	15960
Phonetic component	禹
Rime group	魚
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	羽
Old Chinese	/*ɢʷaʔ/

Definitions

禹

1. (Chinese mythology) Yu the Great (the legendary king associated with a flood myth and the foundation of the Xia dynasty)
2. ^‡ insect

Compounds

• 伯禹
• 夏禹
• 大禹 (Dà Yǔ)
• 大禹嶺／大禹岭
• 大禹治水 (Dàyǔ zhìshuǐ)
• 王禹偁
• 禹州 (Yǔzhōu, “Yuzhou”)
• 禹步
• 禹王 (Yǔwáng)
• 禹王臺／禹王台
• 禹甸
• 禹穴
• 禹行舜趨／禹行舜趋
• 禹貢／禹贡
• 禹跡／禹迹
• 禹餘糧／禹余粮
• 貢禹／贡禹
• 貢禹彈冠／贡禹弹冠

 

References

• “Query for 禹”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.

Japanese

Kanji

禹

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. Name of a Xia Dynasty emperor in ancient China: Emperor Yŭ, Yŭ the Great, or Dà Yŭ.

Readings

• Go-on: う (u)
• Kan-on: う (u)
• Nanori: のぶ (nobu)

Compounds

• 禹域(ういき) (uiki)
• 禹穴(うけつ) (uketsu)
• 禹行舜趨(うこうしゅんすう) (ukōshunsū)
• 禹貢(うこう) (ukō)
• 禹歩(うほ) (uho)
• 禹余糧(うよりょう) (uyoryō)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
禹
う Hyōgaiji
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ᵝ]

Proper noun

禹(う) • (U) 

1. Yu the Great, legendary founder of the Xia Dynasty in ancient China

Further reading

• 禹 on the Japanese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^ja
• Yu the Great on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Xia Dynasty on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Korean

Hanja

禹 • (u) (hangeul 우, revised u, McCune–Reischauer u, Yale wu)

1. (성씨) a surname
2. (大禹) Yu the Great
3. (임금) king
4. (벌레) worm
5. (곡척) steel square

Usage notes

ko:w: 우 (하나라) #우의 치수사업

• 禹라는 문자는 본래 도마뱀이나 악어, 용의 모습을 그린 상형문자로, 우의 기원은 황하에 살던 물의 신이라고 보기도 한다.^{[출처 필요]}

우 임금 禹(우)

김경일, 한자교실, 바다출판사, 1999.

• 더듬이와 꼬리가 긴 곤충 종류의 상형문. 아마도 토템 대상인 듯하다. 역사가 긴 부족.

Vietnamese

Han character

禹: Hán Nôm readings: vũ

• 夏禹 Hạ Vũ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Thiều Chửu : Hán Việt Tự Điển Hà Nội 1942
• Trần Văn Chánh: Từ Điển Hán Việt NXB Trẻ, Ho Chi Minh Ville, 1999