朝

Pictographic-ideographic compound:

艹 (grass radical) – vegetation, horizon;

日 (sun) – rising sun;

月 (moon) – setting moon.

The form depicts the morning scene of the sun rising while the moon sets above the horizon of grass.

Character evolution:

Oracle bone script (甲骨文 jiǎgǔwén): full depiction of grass, sun, and crescent moon together.

Bronze inscriptions (金文 jinwen): moon component altered, sometimes written as lines or even as 水 (water).

Seal script (篆書 zhuànshū): diverged into an unrelated form 倝 + 舟 (interpreted in Shuowen Jiezi as a phono-semantic compound).

Clerical script (隸書 lìshū) & Regular script (楷書 kǎishū): returned to the original structure (艹 + 日 + 月), though the right half of the grass component was lost, giving the modern form.

朝禮 (조례) – morning rites

朝夕 (조석) – morning and evening

朝鮮 (조선) – Joseon, also used for North Korea

朝食 (조식) – breakfast

王朝 (왕조) – royal dynasty

朝廷 (조정) – royal court

In Chinese, 朝 is polyphonic:

zhāo – “morning”

cháo – “dynasty, court, to face toward”

In Korean, primarily read “조.”

The character can be humorously split into 十月十日 (“ten, moon, ten, sun”), sometimes used in wordplay.

In Chinese and Japanese media, 朝 often abbreviates North Korea (조선민주주의인민공화국), but this is not used in South Korea.