貞

Stroke order

貞 (Kangxi radical 154, 貝+2, 9 strokes, cangjie input 卜月山金 (YBUC), four-corner 2180₆, composition ⿱⺊貝)

• 偵, 𫨫, 𠸩, 𡎞, 媜, 幀, 𢔤, 𫺤, 揁, 湞, 𨺟, 楨, 𤋺, 𤦹, 禎, 𧶃, 碵, 禎, 𬓲, 𬡥, 𣦓, 緽, 𬢵, 𧶸, 赬, 𮛶, 䡠, 𥢆, 鍞, 𪺘, 𫖙, 𩹰, 𪍕, 𪑳
• 遉, 𰷺, 𢒟, 𨜓, 𠭹, 𫁅, 𫖣, 𫧸, 寊, 𦵄, 𥢅, 𤸘, 𭵐, 𥕫, 𮚯

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1204, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 36658
• Dae Jaweon: page 1665, character 4
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3622, character 3
• Unihan data for U+8C9E

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

Pictogram (象形) - a ding (oracle bone script , ; same as 鼎 (OC *kleːŋʔ)). Borrowed phonetically for “to divine”; however, bronze tripods in ancient China were sometimes used during rituals. Later, a new character was created by adding 卜 (“to divine”) as a radical, hence a semantic component, thus getting 鼑 (oracle bone script ; bronze script . The bottom component was stylized into the unrelated 貝 during the Warring States. Compare 𠟭 > 則.

Various comparisons have been proposed. Within Chinese, it has been compared to 偵 (OC *tʰeŋ, “to test; to detect”) (Schuessler, 2007), 正 (OC *tjeŋs, “correct; right”) (Sagart and Ma, 2020). Outside of Chinese, it has been compared to Tibetan དྲང་པོ (drang po, “straight”) (Sagart, 2020b).

貞

1. virtuous; chaste; pure
2. loyal; faithful

   忠貞／忠贞  ―  zhōngzhēn  ―  loyal and steadfast

3. ^† to divine

   • 辛未貞：𠦪禾于河，尞三牢，沉三牛，宜牢。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     辛未贞：𠦪禾于河，尞三牢，沉三牛，宜牢。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 12th century BCE, Oracle bone Heji 32028

     Xīnwèi zhēn: hū hé yú hé, liáo sān láo, chén sān niú, yí láo.

     Xīnwèi divining: pray for the harvest to Hé, making a burnt offering of three penned oxen, submerging three oxen, and put the penned oxen on the sacrificial table.

   • 季冬，陳玉以貞來歲之媺惡。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     季冬，陈玉以贞来岁之媺恶。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Rites of Zhou, circa 3^rd century BCE

     Jìdōng, chén yù yǐ zhēn láisuì zhī měi'è.

     In the last month of winter, set out precious stones and divine the good and ill of the year to come.

• “貞”, 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–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A03928

(Jōyō kanji)

1. virtue, faithfulness, uprighteousness
2. chastity

• Go-on: ちょう (chō)
• Kan-on: てい (tei, Jōyō)
• Kan’yō-on: じょう (jō)
• Kun: ただしい (tadashii, 貞しい)
• Nanori: さだ (sada)

貞 • (jeong) (hangeul 정, revised jeong, McCune–Reischauer chŏng, Yale ceng)

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

貞: Hán Nôm readings: trinh, riêng, tranh

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