戌 | xū

In Mandarin Chinese, 戌 (Pinyin: xū 🔊) is the eleventh of twelve earthly branches. It corresponds to the Year of the Dog (狗) of the Chinese zodiac; the ninth month; the hour of the Dog (7 pm to 9 pm, “the time when Dogs carry out their duty of guarding the houses”); and the direction 300° (where 0° is north). Its associated “fixed element” is Earth, 土.

The character 狗 refers to any actual dog while 戌 refers to the “zodiac dog”. 戌 is thought to be derived from a pictogram for axe, as can be seen in many historical forms of the character.

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狗 | gǒu

In Mandarin Chinese, 狗 (Pinyin: gǒu 🔊) is a noun that means “dog”. The Dog is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 戌.

Unfortunately for dog lovers, this word also could be used as an adjective meaning “despicable” or “nasty”. Thus 狗男女 (gǒu nánnǚ) is not a man (男) and a woman (女) innocently walking a dog but a “couple in an illicit love affair”.

According to Uncle Hanzi, 狗 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 句 (gōu) and semantic 犭, which itself is a radical form of 犬, archaic or dialectal word for dog.

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犬 | quǎn

In Chinese, 犬 (Pinyin: quǎn) means “dog”. In modern Mandarin, this character is used either as a radical or a part of compound words, for example 牧羊犬 (mùyángquǎn 🔊) “sheepdog” — cf. 牧羊人 (mùyángrén 🔊) “shepherd”.

According to Wiktionary,

Compound characters such as 狇 mostly use the alternative form <犭> at the left of the character. Most represent something to do with dogs or other animals. A smaller proportion (e. g. 狀) use the primary form at the right of the character. A few even show both forms: in 獄 which means “prison” or “litigation”; “words” (言) stand between two dogs to keep them from biting each other.

犬 is written like our other old friend 大, “big”, modified with a dot or a stroke 丶. Wiktionary explains that

the dot is the ear. <That’s why our seaglass 犬 above have got an earring.> In the form 犭, a dog that is up on its hind legs.

Many historical forms of this character look more like a dog standing on its tail.

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