之

See also: え

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Ideogrammic compound (會意): 止 (“foot”) + 一 (“the beginning place”), meaning "to go".

Han character

之 (radical 4 丿+3, 3 strokes, cangjie input 戈弓人 (INO), four-corner 3030₇)

1. ’s (marks preceding phrase as modifier of following phrase)
2. it, him, her, them
3. go to

Derived characters

• 乏 芝

Descendants

• し
• シ

References

• KangXi: page 82, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 125
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 43, character 1
• Unihan data for U+4E4B

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Chinese

		-
simp. and trad.		之

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): zhī (zhi¹)

  (Zhuyin): ㄓ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): zi¹
• Min Nan (POJ): chi

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: zhī
    • Zhuyin: ㄓ
    • Wade-Giles: chih¹
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: jy
    • IPA ^(key): /ʈ͡ʂʐ̩⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: zi¹
    • Yale: jī
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dzi¹
    • IPA ^(key): /t͡siː⁵⁵/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chi
    • Tâi-lô: tsi
    • IPA (Taipei): /t͡ɕi⁴⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡ɕi³⁴/

Middle Chinese pronunciation (之, reconstructed)
Character (之), Pronunciation 1/1
Initial: 章 (23) Final: 之 Division: III			Openness: Open Tone: Level (Ø)			Fanqie: 止而切
Zhengzhang Shangfang	Bernard Karlgren	Li Rong	Pan Wuyun	Edwin Pulleyblank	Wang Li	Shao Rongfen
/t͡ɕɨ/	/t͡ɕi/	/t͡ɕiə/	/t͡ɕɨ/	/cɨ/	/t͡ɕĭə/	/t͡ɕie/

Old Chinese pronunciation (之, reconstructed)
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character								Modern Beijing (Pinyin)								Middle Chinese								Old Chinese								English
之								zhī								‹ tsyi ›								/*tə/								go to
之								zhī								‹ tsyi ›								/*tə/								(3p object pronoun; attributive particle)
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system: Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character					No.					Phonetic component					Rime group					Rime subdivision					Corresponding MC rime					Old Chinese					Notes
之					17188					之					之					0					之					/*tjɯ/

Determiner

之

1. (obsolete) this.

   • 之子于歸。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

     From: 《詩經·周南·桃夭》

     Zhī zǐ yú guī. [Pinyin]

     This girl is to get married.

Verb

之

1. (obsolete) to sprout, to come about.

   • 如語焉而未之然。 [MSC, trad.]

     如语焉而未之然。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 《禮記·祭義》

     Rú yǔ yān érwèi zhīrán. [Pinyin]

     As though you have said something to your parents but their reply has not yet come.

2. (obsolete) to go.

   • 吾欲之楚。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

     From: 《戰國策·魏策四》

     Wú yù zhī chǔ. [Pinyin]

     I want to go to Chu.

Particle

之

1. Indicates that the previous word has possession of the next one.
   • 美国之声  ―  měiguózhīshēng  ―  Voice of America
   • 1John 1.1

     论到从起初原有的生命之道，就是我们所听见所看见，亲眼看过，亲手摸过的。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

     Lùndào cóngqǐ chūyuán yǒude shēngmìngzhīdào, jiùshì wǒmen suǒtīngjiàn suǒkànjiàn, qīnyǎn kànguò, qīnshǒu mōguòde. [Pinyin]

     That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life

2. Indicates that the previous word modifies the next one.
   • 尺寸之功  ―  chǐcùnzhīgōng  ―  a minor contribution

Usage Notes

• As a partical, in English it functions like 's or like the word "of" but with the position of possessor and possessee switched. 的 (de) is more common but 之 is used in many set expressions.

Pronoun

之

1. the third-person pronoun, him, she, it, them.

   • 好一一聽之。 [MSC, trad.]

     好一一听之。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 《韓非子·內儲說上七術》

     Hǎo yīyī tīng zhī. [Pinyin]

     He prefered to listen to them one-by-one.

   • 我们不能对此事听之任之。 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

     Wǒmen bùnéng duìcǐshì tīngzhīrènzhī. [Pinyin]

     We cannot pass this matter by without protest.

Usage Notes

• The pronoun "之" is never used as a subject.

Synonyms

• 的 (de)

Compounds

• 之後
• 之前

References

• (Min Nan) Taiwan Min Nan Common Words Dictionary (臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典)

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Japanese

Kanji

之

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

Readings

• On: し (shi)
• Kun: ゆく (yuku), これ (kore), の (no)
• Nanori: ゆき (yuki)

See also

• 乃
• の

Proper noun

之 (hiragana すすむ, romaji Susumu)

1. A male given name

Usage notes

Formerly used to represent the possessive particle の (no). In modern Japanese, this character is seldom used, and most commonly found in names, such as 龍之介 (Ryūnosuke).

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Korean

Hanja

之 (ji)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 지 (revised: ji, McCune-Reischauer: chi)

• Name (hangeul): 갈 (revised: gal, McCune-Reischauer: kal)

1. This entry needs a definition. Please add one, then remove {{defn}}.

References

• Naver Hanja Dictionary: 之

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Vietnamese

Han character

之 (chi, giây, gì, vuong)

1. This entry needs a definition. Please add one, then remove {{defn}}.

References

• Nom Foundation