器

Compound ideograph (with later reinterpretations):

㗊 (multiple mouths, symbolizing vessels or sounds);

犬 (dog).

Early interpretations:

Shuowen Jiezi glosses 器 as “various vessels (㗊) guarded by a dog (犬).”

Other scholars note 㗊 often relates to “noise,” and propose that 器 originally denoted “a barking dog” (㹞), later borrowed to mean “vessel.”

Shirakawa Shizuka interpreted 㗊 as ritual offering vessels surrounding a dog as sacrifice to the gods.

Another folk-etymology: shared eating of dog meat placed in multiple bowls.

Earliest attested in Bronze inscriptions (金文 jinwen), later standardized in Seal script (篆書).

Semantic range:

- physical container, utensil, vessel, receptacle;

- tools, implements, instruments;

- bodily organs (器官);

- figurative: capacity, talent, measure of a person (器量, 大器);

- institution, apparatus (기관).

樂器 (악기) – musical instrument

武器 (무기) – weapon

容器 (용기) – container, receptacle

器官 (기관) – organ (of the body)

器量 (기량) – capacity, talent

大器 (대기) – great vessel; metaphor for a person of great talent or destiny

In philosophy and classical texts, 器 is often contrasted with 道 (the Way). For example, Daoist writings sometimes speak of “being content with being a vessel (器)” versus transcending toward the greater Way.

The idiom 大器晩成 (“a great vessel is late to mature”) means “a person of great ability takes time to develop.”

In all regions except Japan, the middle component is written 犬, which is the orthodox form found in the Kangxi dictionary.

In Japanese shinjitai, the middle component is written 大 instead of 犬 (the upper right dot is missing). Due to Han unification, both forms are encoded using the same code point. This character may appear to be different depending on the font used.

A CJK compatibility ideograph exists at U+FA38 for the kyūjitai form of 器 which has 犬 as the middle component.

Another character, 𠾖 (U +20F96) exists for the historical form found in the Ming dynasty 《直音篇》 Chinese dictionary which is similar to Japanese shinjitai.

[Source: Wiktionary]