“Fire” and “water” radicals in Chinese writing
Last updated: 02 May 2021
This article is part of a compendium of 3500 characters.
(This article has been converted into a course at this Facebook group.)
Please ensure you know these foundational concepts before reading this article:
- Radicals: indexing radicals, abbreviated radicals, improvised radicals
- Writing strokes: our 7 Stroke Types nomenclature
(“right down throw press dot rise hook”) - Character construction principles: pictorial, semantic, phonetic, and combinations thereof.
Keep these 2 reference sources at hand when you read this article:
- 汉字部首表 (Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components)
(We will refer to this as “Table of Radicals”.) - 通用规范汉字表 (Table of General Standard Chinese Characters)
(We will refer to this as “Table of Characters”.)
We discuss 2 sets of radicals: “fire” and “water”.
We cover the “fire” radicals first since they are more straightforward than the “water” radicals.
Anatomy of “fire” ‘火’
The character ‘火’ (“fire”, huo3, character 164) has a straightforward pictorial construction. There is almost no change in form throughout the history of this character. We see the shape of a typical camp fire throughout.
This shape was in earlier forms.
Also in current form too.
“Fire” radical ‘火’
The first “fire” radical is ‘火’ (radical 95), an indexing radical. This radical invariably stands for “fire” in character construction.
A simple example is seen in ‘灯’ (“light”, deng1, character 534). In ancient times, lights or lamps were implemented with fire.
Character ‘丁’ (“wad”, ding1, character 5) provides phonetic construction.
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘丁’.)
“Fire” radical ‘灬’
The second and last “fire” radical is ‘灬’ (radical 96.a), an abbreviated radical.
The abbreviation from ‘火’ (radical 95) to ‘灬’ (radical 96.a) is straightforward, packing the 4 strokes “dot throw throw press” to the bottom into “throw dot dot dot”.
The radical ‘灬’ (radical 96.a) also always stands for “fire” in character construction (with one exception we’ll look at later).
Examples abound, such as ‘煮’ (“to cook”, zhu3, character 2529).
The improvised radical ‘者’ (“this”, zhe3, character 969) provides some phonetic construction, but mainly semantic construction: pictorially, it was originally “a fire burning twigs on a rack”.
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘者’. Semantics for ‘者’ also requires some in-depth explanation.)
Not “fire”, but “tail”
The single exception where ‘灬’ (radical 96.a) does not mean “fire” is where it is the result of simplification from another pictorial: a bird’s tail in ‘燕’ (“swallow”, yan4, character 3319).
The earliest forms of ‘燕’ (“swallow”, yan4) depict the characteristic forked tail (red highlight). The other body parts are the “head” (blue highlight) and wings.
Subsequent forms added substantive “structure” to the forked tail (red highlight), possibly also for a fuller (squarish) character form. The “head” begins to resemble that in the current form.
Note how the forked tail looks like ‘火’ (radical 95). Simplification of this forked tail pictorial leads us to ‘灬’ (radical 96.a) in the current form.
Another example where this “fire” radical actually means “tail” is in the Traditional form for ‘鱼’ (“fish”, yu2, character 1194). The “tail” in this character’s earlier forms even looks exactly the same as that for earlier forms for ‘燕’ (“swallow”, yan4)!
Unfortunately, China’s Chinese Character Simplification Scheme may not have been thoroughly consistent here. The “tail” for “fish” was simplified into a single “right” stroke, but the “tail” for “swallow” wasn’t.
Anatomy of “water” ‘水’
The character construction for ‘水’ (“water”, shui3, character 117) features pictorially 3 streams of water: the center solid stream (red highlight), and the 2 turbulent streams on each side.
The current form also has 3 streams of water, but the side streams are much more clearly distinguished from the center stream, thanks to standardization of writing strokes and pictorial simplification.
“Water” radical ‘水’
The first “water” radical we’ll look at is ‘水’ (radical 77). It invariably means “water” (or liquid).
Not many characters feature this radical, since it takes up considerable space and is less efficient in form than its abbreviated versions.
A commonly used character featuring this radical is ‘永’ (“forever”, yong3, character 324). Adding a calligraphic embellishment (red highlight) and a “source” for a “spring (of water)” (blue highlight), we get “an ever flowing spring”. The imagery then connects to the sense of “forever”.
The calligraphic embellishment may also be thought of as a tributary.
Another character, literally “spring” ‘泉’ (quan2, character 1572), follows almost the same character construction: there’s a “source” (spring), and there’s “water” flowing from the “source”. An early form clearly shows an emphasis (red highlight) on the “spring”, rather than the “water” and flow.
The current form for “spring” also clearly has a greater emphasis on the “source”, pictorially represented by ‘白’ (“white”, bai2, character 275), than in ‘永’ (“forever”, yong3) which only features a “dot” for “source”. That will be an easy mnemonic to learn this character: to contrast with ‘永’ (“forever”, yong3).
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘白’.)
“Water” radical ‘氵’
The second “water” radical we’ll look at is ‘氵’ (radical 47.a). It also invariably means “water” (or liquid).
There is no clearly apparent method to abbreviate ‘水’ (radical 77) into ‘氵’ (radical 47.a). Suffice to say that the radical looks like “3 drops of water” (literally the Chinese term used to refer to this radical).
A simple example is seen in ‘汗’ (“sweat”, han4, character 536).
The improvised radical ‘干’ (“dry”, gan1, character 23) provides phonetic construction. It also semantically means “hard work”; it was pictorially a “hunting tool” (red highlight) — possibly a pitchfork doubling as a farming implement? — in earlier forms.
“Sweat” presents with “hard work”. Alternatively, we can think of “sweating” as being “wet” without contact with “water” (“dry” form of being “wet”).
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘干’.)
“Water” radical ‘冫’
The third “water” radical we’ll look at is ‘冫’ (radical 18). It typically indicates “ice” or low temperature, or a lower volume of water than that indicated by ‘氵’ (radical 47.a).
Abbreviating further from ‘氵’ (radical 47.a), we get ‘冫’ (radical 18). The Chinese term used to refer to this radical is literally “2 drops of water”.
The first character that comes to mind is ‘冰’ (“ice”, bing1, character 513). The character construction is obvious: “water” that has been “cooled” into “ice”.
A character that features this radical in the sense of “low temperature” is ‘冷’ (“cold”, leng3, character 838).
Improvised radical ‘令’ (“to command”, ling4, character 282) provides phonetic construction.
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘令’, which involves “bells” and “legislature”.)
In the sense of “low volume of water”, we have ‘冲’ (“to rinse”, chong1, character 511).
Improvised radical ‘中’ (“middle”, zhong1, character 113) provides phonetic construction.
The character construction for ‘中’ (“middle”, zhong1) itself is so simple, we’ll cover it here. Note how the box, originally a circle in earlier forms, marks the middle of the vertical “down” stroke.
“Water” radical ‘氺’
The fourth and last “water” radical we’ll cover is ‘氺’ (radical 104.a).
The method of abbreviation from ‘水’ (radical 77) involves only the brevity of strokes on the left side (red highlight): from the longer “right-throw” into the shorter “dot rise”. Even the strokes on the right side are shortened versions of the original: “throw dot” instead of “throw press”.
This radical also always means “water” (or liquid).
The etymology for ‘录’ (“to record”, lu4, character 1304) is unclear. We can see its character construction as a “hand” ‘彐’ (radical 50) using “liquid” ink to “record” events.
An alternative interpretation of its construction, possibly somewhat official too, is a “hand” ‘彐’ (radical 50) carving writing into wood using a “tool” ‘亅’ (radical 2.a) and leaving “wood carvings” (4 strokes “dot rise throw dot”) around. In this case, ‘氺’ (radical 104.a) wouldn’t indicate “water”.
A character where this “water” radical means “liquid” — specifically glue-like liquid — is ‘黎’ (“close to (in time)”, li2, character 3262).
In order to grasp its character construction, we first need to analyze that for another character: ‘黍’ (“glutinous millet”, shu3, character 5202). Radical ‘禾’ (radical 111) represents “millet”. Radical ‘人’ (radical 12) probably represents “cooking” (red highlight). Finally, ‘氺’ (radical 104.a) indicates that the “millet” remains sort of “liquid” — specifically in glue-like form — instead of being soft solids like for normal rice.
In ‘黎’ (“close to (in time)”, li2), we see an additional radical: an abbreviated ‘勿’ (“don’t”, wu4, character 152). We can think of this character’s construction as “close to (in time), don’t detach or leave”. In other words, “sticky”, or “to adhere close in time”. We see such sense in the word “黎明” (“close to morning”, li2 ming2).
(TODO: Link to character construction for ‘禾’ and ‘勿’.)
Mistaken identity: not our radical!
In ‘求’ (“to beg”, qiu2, character 690), the bottom part of the character may seem like the “water” radical we’re discussing, but it is not.
Instead, this character features a “hand” ‘寸’ (“inch”, cun4, radical 31).
The “dot” (wrist pointer) inside the “hand” radical is moved to the top-right (blue highlight) to make way for “animal hairs” (red highlight).
From earlier forms of the character, we can clearly see that someone is holding on to a “hairy animal” (red highlight) and reaching out a “hand” (blue highlight) to ask for help.
