Chinese Character Wiki
为

wèi, wéi

do

Simplified form of 為. Pictograph of a hand (又) guiding an elephant (象) to do work (in ancient China elephants were tamed to do work). Based on the meaning "to work; to do".

Components
又 iconic component

又  Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

象 iconic,simplified component

象  Iconic Simplified component

xiàng

  

elephant

Evolution

为 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
为 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
为 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
为 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
为 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
为 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

为 (為) 

wèi

do, handle, govern, act; be; because of; for; to

为 (為) 

wéi

as (in the capacity of); to take sth as; to act as; to serve as; to behave as; to become; to be; to do; by (in the passive voice)

为 (爲) 

wéi

variant of 為|为[wéi]; as (i.e. in the capacity of)

为 (爲) 

wèi

variant of 為|为[wèi], because of

Most common words with 为
Freq.
Word
Meaning

为

to act as

因为

because

为什么

why?

认为

to believe

为了

in order to

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

伪 沩

Statistics

HSK level 2

Appears in 99.9680% of movies

27th most common character in movies

18th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Traditional

為

Unicode

U+4E3A


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