Radical 85 or radical water () meaning "

water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

" is a Kangxi radical; one of 35 of the 214 that are composed of 4

strokes A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop funct ...

. Its left-hand form, , is closely related to

Radical 15 Radical 15 or radical ice (), meaning ice, is one of 23 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of 2 strokes. In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 115 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. is also the 18th indexin ...

, ''bīng'' (also known as 两点水 ''liǎngdiǎnshuǐ''), meaning "ice", from which it differs by the addition of just one stroke. In the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

'', there are 1,595 characters (out of 40,000) to be found under this radical. is also the 77th indexing component in the ''

Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components ''The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components'' () is a lexicographic tool used to order the Chinese characters in mainland China. The specification is also known as GF 0011-2009. In China's normative documents, "radical" is defined as any ...

'' predominantly adopted by

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions, ...

dictionaries published in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

, with and being its associated indexing component. In the Chinese wuxing ("Five Phases"), 水 represents the element

Water Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...

. In

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

, 水 (Water) is the nature component of the

bagua The bagua or pakua (八卦) are a set of eight symbols that originated in China, used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each li ...

diagram ''kǎn''.

Evolution

File:水-oracle.svg,

Oracle bone script Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or Turtle shell#Plastron, turtle plastrons used in pyromancy, pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millen ...

character File:水-bronze.svg, Bronze script character File:水-bigseal.svg,

Large seal script The large seal script or great seal script () is a traditional reference to Chinese writing from before the Qin dynasty (i.e. before 221 BCE), and is now popularly understood to refer narrowly to the writing of the Western and early Eastern Zhou ...

character File:水-seal.svg, Small seal script character

Derived characters

Literature

* *Leyi Li: “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, tai

References

External links

Unihan Database - U+6C34Full list of characters with radical 85
{{Simplified Chinese radicals 085 077