Radical 36

夕
35 ⼢ ◄	36	► ⼤ 37
Pinyin :	xī (= evening)
Zhuyin :	ㄒ 一
Hiragana :	ゆ う べ yûbe
Kanji :	夕 yûbe (= evening)
Hangul :	저녁
Sinocorean :	석
Codepoint :	U + 5915
Stroke sequence :

The radical 36 meaning " evening " (picture of a moon radical 74月above the horizon half) is one of 31 traditional radicals of Chinese characters , consisting of three strokes. There are other radical signs that look similar to this sign .

The seal form of this character shows a clear similarity to the character 月 (= moon). However, 夕 is missing a dash. So 夕 represents a reduced moon that is not yet shining that bright. The signs ruled by 夕 are usually also in this context: 夜 (= night), 梦 (= dream), 飧 (= dinner).

多 (duo = a lot) is a combined symbol: dusk follows dusk. However, there is another explanation. Accordingly, 多 (= much) is derived from the two superposed components 肉 (= meat), the oracle bone shape of which is very similar to the symbol 夕. Meat above and meat below = a lot of meat = a lot.

Radical 78歹 (= bad) apparently also has the radical 夕 at the bottom, but neither the origin nor the meaning of the sign have anything to do with this radical. In the shortened characters 岁 (= year, year of life) and 罗 (= safety net), 夕 only has a general differentiating function.

夕 sometimes also functions as a sound carrier, for example in 汐 (= evening flood, with three drops of water 氵 as a meaning carrier), 穸 (in 窀穸 = grave pit, with the cave 穴 in the second sign as a meaning carrier) and 矽 (= silicon, with the stone 石 as a bearer of meaning).

Character combinations ruled by radical 36

dusk

Strokes	character
+ 00	夕
+ 02	外 夗 夘
+ 03	夙 多 夛
+ 05	夜夝
+ 07	夞 够
+ 08	夠 梦
+ 09	夡
+11	夢 夣 夤 夥

In the Unicode block Kangxi radicals , radical 36 is coded under the code point number 12.067 (U + 2F23).

literature

• Edoardo Fazzioli : Painted Words. 214 Chinese characters - from picture to concept . Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-34-7 , p. 186 .

For detailed references, see List of Traditional Radicals: Literature

Web links

Commons : Radikal 36  - Graphic representations of Radikal 36

• Xiù cai.oai.de (PDF; 1.72 MB) Explanation of Radikal 36 on page 35