城

城 U+2F852, 城 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F852 ← 壮 CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 埴 →

Stroke order

城 (Kangxi radical 32, 土+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 土戈竹尸 (GIHS), four-corner 4315₀, composition ⿰土成)

• 𬁃, 𪾓

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 229, character 32
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5086
• Dae Jaweon: page 465, character 22
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 438, character 7
• Unihan data for U+57CE

• Unihan data for U+2F852

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 城 (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 城 (搞清楚) (Cantonese)
• siâⁿ (Southern Min)

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

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *djeŋ) : semantic 土 (“soil”) + phonetic 成 (OC *djeŋ) since the bricks of the city walls were originally made of stamped earth.

Cognate with 成 (OC *djeŋ, “to complete; city walls”), 盛 (OC *djeŋ, “to hold with a receptacle”), 盛 (OC *djeŋs, “abundant; flourishing”), as 城 (OC *djeŋ, “city wall”) was made of filled-in or stamped earth (Schuessler, 2007). See 成 for more.

Its original meaning was "city walls" and was originally written as 成; later, it started to indicate the city (i.e., the part of territory within the city walls) due to metonymy since a single part of a city indicates the city itself.

城

1. city wall

   兵臨城下／兵临城下  ―  bīnglínchéngxià  ―  the enemy army is just outside of the walls of the city

   • 三里之城，七里之郭，環而攻之而不勝。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     三里之城，七里之郭，环而攻之而不胜。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     Sān lǐ zhī chéng, qī lǐ zhī guō, huán ér gōng zhī ér bù shèng.

     There is a city, with an inner wall of three li in circumference, and an outer wall of seven. The enemy surround and attack it, but they are not able to take it.

2. area within the city walls

   紫禁城  ―  Zǐjìnchéng  ―  Forbidden City

3. city; town

   城鄉／城乡  ―  chéngxiāng  ―  urban and rural areas

   • 於是王召見，問藺相如曰：「秦王以十五城請易寡人之璧，可予不？」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     于是王召见，问蔺相如曰：「秦王以十五城请易寡人之璧，可予不？」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Yúshì wáng zhàojiàn, wèn Lìn Xiàngrú yuē: “Qín wáng yǐ shíwǔ chéng qǐng yì guǎrén zhī bì, kě yǔ bù?”

     So the King summoned Lin Xiangru and asked, "The King of Qin has proposed bartering fifteen towns for my jade (Heshibi). Can I give him (my jade)?"

4. large commercial venue

   服裝城／服装城  ―  fúzhuāng chéng  ―  garment mall

   美食城  ―  měishí chéng  ―  food court/dining area

5. (literary) to construct city walls
6. a surname

• 村 (cūn)

Others:

• → Lao: ຊຽງ (sīang)
• → Lü: ᦵᦋᧂ (tseng)
• → Northern Thai: ᨩ᩠ᨿᨦ
• → Thai: เชียง (chiiang)
• → Zhuang: singz

• “城”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “Entry #4834”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2024.

Shinjitai	城
Kyūjitai	城 城 or 城+︀?
	城󠄀 城+󠄀? (Adobe-Japan1)
	城󠄃 城+󠄃? (Hanyo-Denshi) (Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment. See here for details.

(Fourth grade kyōiku kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 城)

• Go-on: じょう (jō, Jōyō)^{←じやう (zyau, historical)}
• Kan-on: せい (sei)
• Kun: しろ (shiro, 城, Jōyō)、き (ki, 城)、きずく (kizuku, 城く)^{←きづく (kiduku, 城く, historical)}、ぐすく (gusuku, 城)、しき (shiki, 城)
• Nanori: いく (iku)、がき (gaki)、き (ki)、くに (kuni)、ぐしく (gushiku)、ぐすく (gusuku)、しき (shiki)、さね (sane)、しげ・しろ (shige shiro)、すく (suku)、ぜい (zei)、たち (tachi)、なり (nari)、むら (mura)

• 破(は)城(じょう)槌(つい) (hajōtsui): a battering ram

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

城

Wikipedia ^ja

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Castle

Wikipedia

Derivation unknown. The shiro reading for this character appears in 794 CE when the 山背 (Yamashiro) region was renamed 山城,^[1] by Emperor Kanmu, thus applying the shiro reading to the 城 kanji for the first time.

• (Tokyo) しろ (Heiban – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

城(しろ) • (shiro) 

1. castle

The shiro reading may be used most often when this term appears as a standalone noun.

• (honorific) お城(しろ) (oshiro)

	A user has added this entry to requests for verification(+) with the reason: “An Okinawan word. It's "obsolete" and "Okinawan" (i.e. it's not Japanese), so doesn't that make it not suitable for a Japanese entry?”
	If it cannot be verified that this term meets our attestation criteria, it will be deleted. Feel free to edit this entry as normal, but do not remove {{rfv}} until the request has been resolved.

Borrowed from older Okinawan (Modern Okinawan 城 (gushiku)). The final ku may be cognate with mainland Japanese ki (see below).

The initial gu may be cognate with 御 (go, “honorific”), but it is problematic in that the only honorary prefixes found in Omoro Sōshi are 御 (mi) and 御 (o). Suku may be related to しけ (shike, “a holy place”) or cognate with 塞 (soko, “fortress”). While written with the kanji for "castle", textual and cultural evidence suggests that the initial primary meaning was a holy place.

• IPA^(key):

城(ぐすく) • (gusuku) 

1. (obsolete, Okinawa) castle

Not used in isolation in modern Japanese. This term remains as an element in various place names.

ki₂: >

From Old Japanese, from Baekje 己 (*kɨ, “walled settlement”).^[3]

• IPA^(key):

城(き) • (ki) 

1. (archaic) a structure surrounded by a moat or walls: a fortress, castle
   • c. 759, Man’yōshū, book 20, poem 4331:

     天皇乃 等保能朝[廷]等 之良奴日 筑紫國波 安多麻毛流 於佐倍乃城曽等 聞食 四方國尓波 比等佐波尓 美知弖波安礼杼 登利我奈久 安豆麻乎能故波 伊田牟可比 加敝里見世受弖 伊佐美多流 多家吉軍卒等 祢疑多麻比 麻氣乃麻尓々々 多良知祢乃 波々我目可礼弖 若草能 都麻乎母麻可受 安良多麻能 月日餘美都々 安之我知流 難波能美津尓 大船尓 末加伊之自奴伎 安佐奈藝尓 可故等登能倍 由布思保尓 可知比伎乎里 安騰母比弖 許藝由久伎美波 奈美乃間乎 伊由伎佐具久美 麻佐吉久母 波夜久伊多里弖 大王乃 美許等能麻尓末 麻須良男乃 許己呂乎母知弖 安里米具[理] 事之乎波良[婆] 都々麻波受 可敝理伎麻勢登 伊波比倍乎 等許敝尓須恵弖 之路多倍能 蘇田遠利加敝之 奴婆多麻乃 久路加美之伎弖 奈我伎氣遠 麻知可母戀牟 波之伎都麻良波

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 787-824: Nihon Ryōiki (preface, page 201)

     原夫内経外書 伝於日本 而興始代 凡有二時 皆自百済国将禮來之 軽嶋豊明宮御宇誉田天皇代 外書來之 礒城訓紀嶋金刺宮御宇鉄明天皇代 内典來也 [...]

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Originally a compound of 石 (shi, “stone”) +‎ 城 (ki, “castle, fortress”).

• IPA^(key):

城(しき) • (shiki) 

1. (archaic) a castle, a fortress

/zjau/ → */ʑɔː/ → /d͡ʑoː/

From Middle Chinese 城 (MC dzyeng). Compare modern Min Nan reading siâⁿ.

• (Tokyo) じょー (Atamadaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

城(じょう) • (jō) ^{←じやう (zyau)?}

1. a castle, a fortress

   盛(もり)岡(おか)城(じょう)

   Morioka-jō

   Morioka Castle

• 宮(みや) (miya): palace
• 殿(との) (tono): palace, hall
• 宮(きゅう)殿(でん) (kyūden): palace
• 城(じょう)郭(かく) (jōkaku): castle
• 砦(とりで) (toride): fortress

• Hokama, Shuzen with Nobutsuna Saigō (1972) [c. 1531-1623] Nihon Shisō Taikai 18: Omoro Sōshi (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten
• Izumoji, Osamu (1996) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 30: Nihon Ryōiki (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
• Satake, Akihiro with Hideo Yamada, Rikio Kudō, Masao Ōtani, and Yoshiyuki Yamazaki (c. 759) Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 4: Man’yōshū 4 (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, published 2003, →ISBN.

From Middle Chinese 城 (MC dzyeng).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

城

Wikisource

城 (eumhun 재 성 (jae seong))

1. hanja form^? of 성 (“castle”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

城(ぐしく) (gushiku) 

1. a gusuku (Ryukyuan castle)
   • 1531-1623: Omoro Sōshi

     一 聞得大君ぎや 降れて 遊びよわれば 天が下 平らげて ちよわれ 又 鳴響む精高子が 又 首里杜ぐすく 真玉杜ぐすく

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. a word used in placenames

   中(なか)城(ぐしく)からやいびーん。

   Nakagushiku kara yaibīn.

   I am from Nakagusuku.

城: Hán Nôm readings: thành, nhật

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