Chinese Character Wiki
規

guī

rules

Original meaning: 

compass; a kind of drawing tool

Depicts a kind of drawing tool for drawing circles with. The 見 (see) component was later added to suggest watching something being drawn. Based on the original meaning "compass; a kind of drawing tool", now written as 槼. The meaning has shifted over time and now means "rules".

Components
◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts a compass or a kind of drawing tool. Modern form looks like unrelated 夫.

見 meaning component

見  Meaning component

jiàn, xiàn

  

see

Evolution

規 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
規 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
規 Clerical script Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
規 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

规 (規) 

guī

rules, regulations, customs, law; compass; a rule; regulation; to admonish; to plan; to scheme

Most common words with 規
Freq.
Word
Meaning

规定

provision

规则

rule

规矩

rule

规划

planning

规模

scale

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

窺

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*kʷe

kjwie

guī

compass, circle


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 50.1041% of movies

823rd most common character in movies

321st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

11

Simplified

规

Unicode

U+898F

Shuowen

“規，有法度也。从夫，从見。”


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License