Chinese Character Wiki
為

wèi, wéi

do

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

Depicts a hand.

象 iconic component

象  Iconic component

xiàng

  

elephant

Evolution

為 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
為 Regular script Modern

Regular 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)

Most common words with 為
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 1 character (0 verified)

偽

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ɢʷ(r)aj

hjwe

wéi

make, do, act as

*ɢʷ(r)aj-s

hjweH

wèi

for, because


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 99.9680% of movies

27th most common character in movies

18th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

9

Simplified

为

Unicode

U+70BA

Shuowen

“爲，母猴也，其爲禽好爪，爪，母猴象也；下腹為母猴形。王育曰：‘爪，象形也。’，古文爲，象兩母猴相對形。”


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