气

See also: 氣, 気, and 炁

Translingual

Traditional	氣
Shinjitai	気
Simplified	气

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

气 (Kangxi radical 84, 气+0, 4 strokes, cangjie input 人一弓 (OMN) or 難人一弓 (XOMN), four-corner 8001₇, composition ⿳𠂉一⺄)

1. Kangxi radical #84, ⽓.
2. Shuōwén Jiězì radical №8

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/气
• 㐹, 𠯏, 𡉛, 忾, 㧉, 汽, 𨸛, 𣅠, 䏗, 𣏙, 𪸕, 𤽍, 𥐬, 𥝬, 𥸽, 𥾨, 𫊨, 𧥷, 𧺞, 𨥊, 靔, 𩚤(饩), 𩡹, 𪌇, 㡮, 𪗟, 芞, 𥤶, 𤴸

Related characters

• 氣 (Orthodox traditional form)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 599, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17043
• Dae Jaweon: page 990, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2010, character 1
• Unihan data for U+6C14

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Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 气
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (气) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
愾	*kʰɯːds, *qʰɯds
忾	*qʰrɯl
刏	*kɯl, *ɡɯl, *kuːls
汽	*kʰɯds
氣	*kʰɯds, *qʰɯds
气	*kʰɯds
忥	*qʰɯds
餼	*qʰɯds
鎎	*qʰɯds
熂	*qʰɯds
霼	*qʰɯds
犔	*qʰɯds

气 (OC *kʰɯds) is a pictogram (象形) of clouds flowing through the sky. In the oracle bone script, it was represented by three horizontal strokes, expressing the "feeling" of the sky. However, in order to avoid confusion with the number 三 (OC *suːm, *suːms), the current 气 (OC *kʰɯds) was changed to draw a small stroke from top to bottom. The glyph of 氣 (OC *kʰɯds, *qʰɯds) and 乞 (OC *kʰɯds, *kʰɯd) comes from the same ancient form.

Etymology 1

For pronunciation and definitions of 气 – see 氣 (“gas; air; etc.”). (This character is the simplified and variant form of 氣).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 气 – see 乞 (“to beg; to request; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 乞).

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 气 – see 餼 (“foodgrain as a gift; foodgrain; etc.”). (This character is an ancient variant form of 餼).

References

• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B01998
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A02115-005#26
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A00041-002#26

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Japanese

Kanji

气

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. steam radical (きがまえ (kigamae))

Readings

• Go-on: け (ke)
• Kan-on: き (ki)
• Kun: いき (iki)

Usage notes

• This character exists only as a radical in Japanese. The corresponding character is 気 (“air; atmosphere; spirit”).

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Vietnamese

Han character

气: Hán Việt readings: khí

1. chữ Hán form of khí (“steam radical”).