Amazing Chinese Characters (231) Before or In advance - 先

The shell bone script of character Before is

The top

is character Foot (Post 93)

The middle is a horizontal line, meaning the ground.

The bottom

is a human or person.

A person follows a foot, which is somebody's foot, who is in front of him or before him.

The bronze script of the character is

The top is character Foot, the bottom is a person.

The small seal script for the character is

The top is foot, the bottom is human, some similarity to the shell bone script.

The clerical script is

Changed a lot, not much similarity but still can see the loose connection with the small seal script.

The song typeface of the character is

先

Same as the clerical script.

Right now, the character means Before, In front of, Priority, Earlier, Ancestor, In advance, etc. Something in advance or before either in physical position, or time, or priority, normally by combining with another character to form word to distinguish the subtle difference, for example: 先前，先到，先辈，优先，etc., which is belong the content of this blog.

The Pinyin for the character is Xian1.