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昉

fǎng
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 dawn; daybreak
  2. 2 to begin; to start

Examples

天昉时，农民已经下地了。
Tiān fǎng shí, nóngmín yǐjīng xià dì le.
At first light the farmers were already heading into the fields.
这个习俗昉于古代。
Zhè ge xísú fǎng yú gǔdài.
This custom began in ancient times.

Tips

memory
The sun 日 just appearing 'over there' (方, direction) pictures daybreak. From the literal 'dawn' it extends to the abstract sense of something beginning. The character is rare today and survives mainly in literary writing and given names.

Components

radical
日 rì
sun; day
The sun radical on the left. It signals that 昉 is about light and time of day, specifically the sun first rising at dawn.
phonetic
方 fāng
direction; square
Gives the sound: standalone 方 is fāng, shifted here to fǎng. Its 'direction' sense also hints at light coming from one quarter of the sky.

Stroke Order

昉 fǎng