Earthly Branches
Many Chinese characters are phono-semantic compounds, written with a phonetic element that indicates pronunciation with a radical or signifier that suggests semantic meaning. "Shen"'s standard and antiquated characters combine the character "chen" ("Dragon (zodiac), duodecimal 5th of the 12 Earthly Branches; period from 7-9 AM; time period; occasion; star; celestial body") phonetic with the "chong" ("insect; reptile") radical.