Radical 5

乙 乚 乛
4 ⼃ ◄	5	► ⼅ 6
Pinyin :	yǐ
Zhuyin :	ㄧ ˇ
Hiragana :	お つ otsu
Kanji :	乙 otsu (= fish hook)
Hangul :	새 sae
Sinocorean :	을 owl
Codepoint :	U + 4E59 4E5A 4E5B
Stroke sequence :

The radical 5 meaning " hook ", " sickle " is one of six of the 214 traditional radicals of Chinese characters , which consist of only a single stroke.

With 13 character combinations in Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary, there are only a few characters that can be found under this radical in the lexicon. There are 42 characters in the Kangxi dictionary .

The radical 5 as a curved line (鉤 gōu) belongs to the eight principles of the character 永 (永字八法 Yǒngzì Bāfǎ), which are the basis of Chinese calligraphy .

The character developed from the pictorial representation of a fish hook or sickle . In the latter case, it could reproduce a curved blade with a short handle. Under certain circumstances, however, it could also be a sapling that germinates from the earth.

Radical 5 is still used as an independent symbol with the meaning of 2nd heavenly stem . In this case it stands for the number two.

There are also the variants 乚 (U + 4E5A, similar to the katakana sign レ “re”) and 乛 (U + 4E5B).

Character compounds ruled by radical 5

Yǒngzì Bāfǎ (gōu)

Strokes	character
+ 00	乙 乚 乛
+ 01	乜 九
+ 02	乞 也 习
+ 03	乢 乣 乤 乥
+ 04	乧
+ 05	乨 乩 乪 乫 乬 乭 乮 乯
+ 06	乱 乲
+ 07	乳 乴 乵 乶 乷 乸
+ 08	乹 乺 乻 乼 乽
+10	乾 乿 亀
+11	亁
+12	亂 亃 亄

In the Unicode block Kangxi radicals , radical 5 is coded under the code point number 12.036 (U + 2F04).

literature

• Edoardo Fazzioli : Painted Words. 214 Chinese characters - from picture to concept . Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-34-7 , p. 142 .
• Li Leyi : Development of the Chinese script using the example of 500 characters . Language and Culture College Publishing House, Beijing 1993, ISBN 7-5619-0206-9 , pp. 411 .

For detailed references, see List of Traditional Radicals: Literature

Web links

Commons : Radikal 5  - Graphic representations of Radikal 5

Wiktionary: 乙  - Explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Xiù cai.oai.de (PDF; 1.72 MB) Explanation of radical 5 on page 5