Amazing Chinese Characters (561) Town or Village - 邑

The shell bone script of character Town or Village is

What is the top square? Some people believe that it is city wall, others think that it is just a person's head. I prefer the latter. The character means a place where many people live together, either village or small town, which normally has no city wall.

The bronze script of the character is

The bottom changed a lot, but it is a person's body.

The small seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The clerical script of the character is

Similar to small seal script.

The character was replaced about two thousands years ago by other characters in the meaning of Village or Town. It is still used in proverbs with the same meaning in writing Chinese, but not used often as a single character, and no use in oral Chinese now.

Its Pinyin is Yi4.