zhī HSK2

only

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approved by Peter Olson · Mar 7, 2026, 06:10 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Mar 7, 2026, 06:10 AM

it depicts a hand, so it's iconic

Changed fields: components

Depicts a hand () holding a bird (). is used as a measure word for birds, as well as some other animals and objects.

Components

Iconic component
Iconic component
hand

Depicts a hand.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyektek single

說文解字

鳥一枚也。从又持隹。持一隹曰隻,二隹曰雙。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica