Radical 194
Encyclopedia
Radical 194 is one of eight out of the total 214 Kangxi radicals written with ten strokes.
The character is historically composed of "legs", representing a large demon's head and a curl looking similar to taken to represent a swirl of vapour, or a demon's tail.
The character can be traced to the oracle bone script
, where it depicts a man kneeling on a monster head.
Most of the characters derived from the radical have meanings related to ghosts or souls, including "devil, demon", "black magic", "nightmare", "soul". In some signs, however, the radical is present purely as a phonetic marker, for example in , the State of Wei during the Three Kingdoms
period.
The character is historically composed of "legs", representing a large demon's head and a curl looking similar to taken to represent a swirl of vapour, or a demon's tail.
The character can be traced to the oracle bone script
Oracle bone script
Oracle bone script refers to incised ancient Chinese characters found on oracle bones, which are animal bones or turtle shells used in divination in Bronze Age China...
, where it depicts a man kneeling on a monster head.
Most of the characters derived from the radical have meanings related to ghosts or souls, including "devil, demon", "black magic", "nightmare", "soul". In some signs, however, the radical is present purely as a phonetic marker, for example in , the State of Wei during the Three Kingdoms
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms period was a period in Chinese history, part of an era of disunity called the "Six Dynasties" following immediately the loss of de facto power of the Han Dynasty rulers. In a strict academic sense it refers to the period between the foundation of the state of Wei in 220 and the...
period.
Derived characters
Literature
- Li, Leyi: “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, ISBN 978-7561902042
- Harbaugh, Rick, Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary, Yale University Press (1998), ISBN 9780966075007.http://zhongwen.com/cgi-bin/zipu.cgi?b5=%B0%AD
- Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth (江伊莉), 甲骨文的“鬼”与假面具 (The Gui-Spirit in Oracle Bone Inscriptions), International Conference Celebrating the 95th Anniversary of the Discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions", Anyang, China, 1994.