龠

龠 U+9FA0, 龠 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-9FA0 ← 龟 [U+9F9F] CJK Unified Ideographs 龡 → [U+9FA1]

⿕ U+2FD5, ⿕ KANGXI RADICAL FLUTE [unassigned: U+2FD6–U+2FEF] ← ⿔ [U+2FD4] Kangxi Radicals ⿰ → [U+2FF0]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

龠 (Kangxi radical 214, 龠+0, 17 strokes, cangjie input 人一口月 (OMRB), four-corner 8022₇, composition ⿳亼𠱠𠕁)

1. Kangxi radical #214, ⿕.
2. Shuowen Jiezi radical №43

Derived characters

• Appendix:Chinese radical/龠
• 㒢, 瀹, 爚, 禴, 讑 (𰶏), 䟑, 䠯, 鑰, 鸙 (𱊵), 蘥, 籥, 㿜

Additional Derived Characters

• 𢅹, 𨙄, 𭨑, 𰢙, 𥌺, 𥤉, 𧟇, 𦇬, 𧕋, 𧹊, 𬰾, 𮪟, 𮯘, 𭄜, 𱰓, 𧢢, 𬱳, 𭨣, 𨷲 (𨸎), 𱱰

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1538, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 48882
• Dae Jaweon: page 2080, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4807, character 1
• Unihan data for U+9FA0

Chinese

simp. and trad.		龠
alternative forms		𠎤

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 龠
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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

	Old Chinese
讑	*lowɢs
籲	*los
爚	*hljowɢ, *lowɢ
禴	*lowɢ
蘥	*lowɢ
鑰	*lowɢ
瀹	*lowɢ
龠	*lowɢ
籥	*lowɢ
鸙	*lowɢ

Pictogram (象形) – a bamboo Pan flute in which two mouths (吅) perhaps indicate the round top of the bamboo pipes. In the bronze inscriptions, 亼 (a flipped 口) was added on top to show a mouth playing the instrument.

Shuowen interprets it as an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 品 + 侖, however his analysis does not match the original appearance. The bottom component is identical but unrelated to 冊 since it originally represents bamboo slips. The whole character is similar but unrelated to 侖.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): yuè (yue⁴)

  (Zhuyin): ㄩㄝˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): joek⁶
• Hakka

  (Sixian, PFS): yok

  (Hailu, HRS): rhog

• Eastern Min (BUC): iŏh
• Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): yorh⁷ / yoeh⁷
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): io̍k / ia̍k

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: yuè
    • Zhuyin: ㄩㄝˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: yuè
    • Wade–Giles: yüeh⁴
    • Yale: ywè
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: yueh
    • Palladius: юэ (jue)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɥɛ⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: joek⁶
    • Yale: yeuhk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: joek⁹
    • Guangdong Romanization: yêg⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /jœːk̚²/
• Hakka
  • (Northern Sixian, incl. Miaoli)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: yok
    • Hakka Romanization System: iog^ˋ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: yog⁵
    • Sinological IPA: /i̯ok̚²/
  • (Southern Sixian, incl. Neipu)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: yok
    • Hakka Romanization System: (r)iog^ˋ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: yog⁵
    • Sinological IPA: /(j)i̯ok̚²/
  • (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
    • Hakka Romanization System: rhog
    • Sinological IPA: /ʒok⁵/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: iŏh
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /yoʔ⁵/
• Puxian Min
  • (Putian)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: yorh⁷
    • Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: io̤̍h
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /yɒʔ⁴/
  • (Xianyou)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: yoeh⁷
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /yøʔ⁴/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: io̍k
    • Tâi-lô: io̍k
    • Phofsit Daibuun: iok
    • IPA (Xiamen): /iɔk̚⁴/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /iɔk̚²⁴/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ia̍k
    • Tâi-lô: ia̍k
    • Phofsit Daibuun: iak
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /iak̚¹²¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: yak

Rime
Character	龠
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	以 (36)
Final (韻)	藥 (107)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	以灼切
Baxter	yak
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/jɨɐk̚/
Pan Wuyun	/jiɐk̚/
Shao Rongfen	/iɑk̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/jɨak̚/
Li Rong	/iak̚/
Wang Li	/jĭak̚/
Bernhard Karlgren	/i̯ak̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	yuè
Expected Cantonese Reflex	joek6

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*lewk/

  (Zhengzhang): /*lowɢ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	龠
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	yuè
Middle Chinese	‹ yak ›
Old Chinese	/*lewk/
English	flute; key; tube
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	龠
Reading #	1/1
No.	16350
Phonetic component	龠
Rime group	藥
Rime subdivision	3
Corresponding MC rime	藥
Old Chinese	/*lowɢ/

Definitions

龠

1. yue (a Chinese musical instrument consisting of a bamboo tube that has three or other numbers of holes)
2. (historical) yue (an ancient Chinese unit of volume notionally equivalent to the space occupied by 1200 millet seeds)

Synonyms

• 籥 (yuè)

References

• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “龠”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 295.

Japanese

Kanji

龠

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. flute

Readings

• Go-on: やく (yaku)
• Kan-on: やく (yaku)
• Kun: ふえ (fue, 龠)

Compounds

• 一龠(いちやく) (ichiyaku, “a unit of volume equal to 1, 200 millet grains”)

Korean

Hanja

龠 • (yak) (hangeul 약, revised yak, McCune–Reischauer yak, Yale yak)

1. flute

Vietnamese

Han character

龠: Hán Nôm readings: dược, thược

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

References

• Nom Foundation