辰 (chén): the fifth earthly branch

Meanings

1 the fifth earthly branch
2 the Dragon (zodiac)
3 7–9 a.m. (in the traditional time system)
4 time/day (literary)

Characters

辰

chén

fifth earthly branch/Dragon/morning hour

Examples

他出生于辰时，属龙。

Tā chūshēng yú chén shí, shǔlóng.

He was born in the Hour of the Dragon, belonging to the Dragon sign.

良辰美景，值得珍惜。

Liáng chén měijǐng, zhídé zhēnxī.

A beautiful time and scenery — worthy of being cherished.

Tips

history

辰 is the fifth of the twelve Earthly Branches (地支), paired with the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac. It covers 7–9 a.m. in the traditional 12-period timekeeping system and the 3rd solar month (roughly April 5 – May 5).

Components

pictograph

辰 chén

celestial body; 5th earthly branch; time

Self-radical character — 辰 is itself Kangxi #161, indexing 农 farm and 晨 dawn. The oracle-bone form pictures a large clam or hoe-shaped shell tool used to clear fields at first light, giving the linked senses of farming-time, the 5th earthly branch (7-9 a.m.), and celestial periods.

Radical

Morning Kangxi #161

The 'morning/dragon-branch' radical. Originally a pictograph of a clam shell used as a primitive farming implement (the original of 蜃), borrowed early to write the fifth Earthly Branch. Indexes only a handful of characters: 辱 (humiliate), 农 (agriculture, derived from the shell-tool sense), 唇 (lip). Far more common as a calendrical morpheme than a productive radical.