衆

See also: 众 and 眾

衆 U+8846, 衆 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8846 ← 衅 [U+8845] CJK Unified Ideographs 衇 → [U+8847]

Translingual

Traditional	眾
Simplified	众
Japanese	衆
Korean	衆

Glyph origin

Variant of 眾, with bottom component ⿲人亻人 replaced by 乑 (similar to unrelated 衣 and 𠂢).

Current form is graphically 血 + 乑 (“crowd, multitude”) – bottom is originally 3 people, hence “crowd”, though top is unrelated to 血, being originally 罒 (“eye”).

Han character

衆 (Kangxi radical 143, 血+6, 12 strokes, cangjie input 竹廿竹竹人 (HTHHO) or 竹廿人竹人 (HTOHO), four-corner 2723₂, composition ⿱血乑)

Derived characters

• 潨, 䝦, 𪢊, 𭹻, 𥼟, 𧑄, 𫏢, 𩻴, 𨖼, 𩅧, 𧑸, 𧕠, 𰃈

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1107, character 16
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 33981
• Dae Jaweon: page 1569, character 17
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3051, character 14
• Unihan data for U+8846

Usage notes

The Kangxi dictionary lists 衆 as the unorthodox form (俗字) of 眾. However, 衆 is the preferred form used in Japanese kanji and Korean hanja.

Chinese

For pronunciation and definitions of 衆 – see 眾 (“masses; people; multitude; crowd; everyone; everything; all matters; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 眾).