家: why is a home a place for pigs?

Question

The character 家 is a bit of a joke: it describes a dwelling (宀) for pigs (豕). Why is this strange construction used? Were pigs somehow important for homes in the past?

说文解字 describes 家 as 从宀，豭省聲 - that is, it uses 豭 (jiā) as phonetic. But then this raises the question: why use 豭 instead of the much simpler 叚 (jiǎ)?

何以不云叚聲。而紆回至此耶。

Therefore the author suspects that the character did indeed originally mean "a dwelling for pigs":

竊謂此篆本義乃豕之凥也。

But this raises another question: why did a dwelling for pigs come to mean home? By contrast, 牢 (a dwelling for oxen) has come to mean "jail". Was the choice of animal therefore arbitrary, or were pigs somehow more important in the past - did people keep pigs in the house? - or did having pigs in the house signify something home-like?

Answer 1

Speculations as to why pigs rather than cows form part of the character meaning home comes from some misunderstandings about the characters. Specifically,

• 「家」 contains 「豕」 as a corrupted phonetic component rather than a semantic component;

• 「牢」 did not originally contain 「宀」, which is a corruption of a drawing of an animal pen.

Shuōwén's explanation of 「家」 is very close, and it traced the source of the phonetic hint of the character correctly.

---

商
甲

甲207
合集20268

「家」 (Baxter-Sagart OC: /*kˤra/, home/dwelling) was originally comprised of semantic 「宀」 (building) and phonetic 「𢑓」 (also /*kˤra/). In the character 「家」, 「𢑓」 was very early on corrupted into 「豕」, leading on to the modern form.

商
甲

乙1047
合集13584西周
金

毛公鼎
集成2841秦
簡

法106
睡虎地秦簡今
楷


　

---

「𢑓」 (male pig) was originally a picture of a pig 「豕」 with an emphasised reproductive organ, and this word is now written as 「豭」. The glyph evolution compared with 「豕」 is as follows:

商
甲

京津1048
合集15346西周
金

頌鼎
集成2829
篆

彑部
說文解字
隸定


　

商
甲

佚43
合集20723西周
金

圅皇父簋
集成4141
篆

豕部
說文解字今
楷


　

_{Yes, Shuōwén is a source of some egregious graphical corruptions, and it simultaneously remains as one of the most important sources of modern character standardisation. It is a good starting point for character analysis that shouldn't at all be relied on.}

Shuōwén's explanation,

“家，居也。从宀，豭省聲。”

「家」 means dwelling, and is comprised from semantic 「宀」 and abbreviated phonetic 「豭」.

correctly determined the vocabulary source of the phonetic hint, but did not correctly determine the actual character representing the vocabulary source.

The other explanations which interpret 「豕」 as a semantic hint are (in my opinion) rather far-fetched, although these explanations will pop up everywhere in more conservative accounts of the character. At the very least, the non-association of characters for non-pig animals with the character for the meaning home/dwelling strongly suggests the importance of the phonetic role of 「𢑓」.

---

Finally, 「牢」 did not originally contain 「宀」.

商
甲

摭續90
合集33631

The original character was a picture of an animal pen, and sometimes, 「羊」 (sheep), 「馬」 (horse), or 「牛」 (cow) was added to the character:

商
甲

乙1983
合集903商
甲

1.522
寧滬新獲甲商
甲

甲392
合集33314

The form with cow is the shape which has survived ...

西周
金

貉子卣
集成5409

... and the animal pen component was later corrupted into 「宀」 (building).

戰國・楚
簡

2.77
包山楚簡秦
簡

日甲65背
睡虎地秦簡今
楷


　

---

References:

• 黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》
• 季旭昇《說文新證》
• 小學堂
• 國學大師
  • 郭沫若《甲骨文合集》
  • 中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》
• 中國哲學書電子化計劃
  • 宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》

Answer 2

The origin form of this word 家 comes from 甲骨文 or 金文

and here is some explanation:

金文家：古家字從 宀從豕；凡祭，士以羊豕，古者庶士庶人無廟，祭於寢（亦食居之所，故從宀），陳豕（已熟者）於屋下也。

so the ancient scholars use a goat or pig for a fete in where they sleep and eat (宀), so 家 means put a cooked pig under the house

Hope that answers your question

Answer 3

As you can see here, 家 was already present in 甲骨文 (~3000 years ago) in essentially similar form. Thus 豕 is not an abbreviation for 豭. (edit: though there is a relation. Per dROOOze's answer, 豕 is phonetic in 家, suggesting jia, and 豭 is a later version of this 豕.)

Answer 4

I think that's because people feed pigs at home. this place will not move, but people have to go out to plant rice or something, this place they feed pigs is a place they will come back to rest and live, so this is home. just guess.

Answer 5

From my understanding of the Chinese culture, the typical concept of a Chinese "home" means a plot of land, a house, and some pigs or other animals that help support the family. I guess some time in the past the pigs became so important or so significant for a family that the word "home" is named after it. Although the modern "home" has changed since the time when a significant number of Chinese are farmers, the concept and the Chinese character remain.

EDIT: My guess for the etymology 牢 is that, in comparison to the more ubiquitous pigs, not every home has cows or oxen, and oxen are relatively more aggressive animals. So, as jails are for aggressive people (kind of), 牢 is for aggressive animals.

Answer 6

@coderzelf's answer is probably most accurate, but I'd like to share an anecdote about my humble origin.

Towards the end of Qing dynasty, Han Chinese from Northern China migrated in waves into Manchuria where land was vast and labours were few. In order to survive the harsh winter, new comers would ask landlords to allow them to share roofs with their pigs. Often times, the hosts would keep the most promising lads. Many of these teens showed remarkable vitality after they grew up and married into their hosts family. By contrast, those who went to cities and hoped to make it in the streets were all frozen hard over night.

Northern China was overall very cold. We can imagine how people keep warm in ancient times. I know Vikings shared roofs with cows in Greenland.

Answer 7

The meaning behind the radicals used for 家, as explained on page 93 of a book titled "Chineasy: The New Way to Read Chinese":

"In ancient China, pigs were raised indoors to keep them safe. Pigs in the house then became associated with a bountiful home."

I know anecdotal references aren't much, but I'd like to include that my Mandarin language teacher (from Beijing) has also explained the same reasoning, and even passed out illustrations made by another source depicting this explanation. If I find the illustrations later, I'll post them.

EDIT: Adding info about 牢 liao2, as brought up by OP.

The meaning behind the radicals used for 牢, as described by Chineasy.org:

"The compound for Prison (牢) is comprised of the building block for Roof (宀) and Cow (牛). Cows that were kept in a household were used as beasts of burden. So though the original meaning of this compound was “fold, pen”, it has since extended to mean, “prison” as a noun (監牢) and “firm” (牢固) as an adjective."

Answer 8

As I have just consulted a dictionary, the earliest house in ancient China was just for fete or family meetings, and "豕" stands for wild boar, which was very rare sacrifice that time,,so it's ceremonious. And then the houses were used for living, the word "家" changed its meaning. Hope this answer can help you.