氣

See also: 气, 気, and 炁

Translingual

Etymology

Original form of 饩 (餼) ("to present rice as a gift"), which is from the same source as 乞 ("to endow; to make endow, to beg"). Current meaning came from phonetic loan.

Schwartz see it as an Ideogrammic compound (會意) : Steam 气 rising from a bowl of rice 米. Schwartz link the rice component to the concept of Qi. The nourishing vapors of boiling rice represent the Qi, the "vital energy" which make life possible.

But this theory is imcompatible with the original meaning of the character. So the rice vapor should be seen as the etymology of 饩(餼) but not as the etymology of 气(氣).

References

• 1985, Benjamin Schwartz, The World of Thought in Ancient China, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 9780674043312:

Han character

氣 (radical 84 气+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 人弓火木 (ONFD), four-corner 8091₇)

1. air, gas, steam, vapor
2. breath, spirit

References

• KangXi: page 599, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17059
• Dae Jaweon: page 990, character 26
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2011, character 14
• Unihan data for U+6C23

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Cantonese

Hanzi

氣 (simplified 气, Yale hei3)

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Japanese

Kanji

氣

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

Readings

• On: き (ki), け (ke)
• Kun: いき (iki)

Usage notes

Kyūjitai (simplified into 気 in Kanji)

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Korean

Hanja

氣 (hangeul 기 (gi), revised gi, McCune-Reischauer ki, Yale ki)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

氣 (simplified 气, Pinyin qì (qi4), Wade-Giles ch'i⁴)

Compounds

• 煤氣鼓

Noun

氣 (traditional, Pinyin qì, simplified 气)

1. (Intermediate Mandarin) air; gas
2. (Intermediate Mandarin) breath
3. smell, odour
4. weather
5. vital energy, life force, (Chinese philosophy) Qi

Verb

氣 (traditional, Pinyin qì, simplified 气)

1. (Elementary Mandarin) to get angry
2. to make angry, to annoy
3. to breath

References

• "氣" (in Mandarin/English), MDBG English to Chinese dictionary ( Based on CC-CEDICT ). URL accessed on 2014-02-17.

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Min Nan

Hanzi

氣 (POJ khì, khùi)

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Vietnamese

Han character

氣 (khí)