Chinese Character Wiki
义

yì

justice

Adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 義. Phonosemantic compound. 羊 represents the meaning and 我 represents the sound. In ancient China sheep (羊) were associated with goodness and beauty, which is why 羊 is a component in characters like 美 (beautiful), 善 (benevolent), and 義 (justice).

Components
羊 meaning,simplified component

羊  Meaning Simplified component

yáng

  

sheep

我 sound,simplified component

我  Sound Simplified component

wǒ

  

I; me

Evolution

义 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
义 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
义 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
义 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
义 Traditional script Modern

Traditional script

Modern
义 Simplified script Modern

Simplified script

Modern
Definitions

义 (義) 

yì

right conduct, righteousness; justice; righteousness; meaning; foster (father etc); adopted; artificial (tooth, limb etc); relationship; friendship

义 (義) 

Yì

surname Yi; (Tw) abbr. for 義大利|义大利[Yì​dà​lì], Italy

Most common words with 义
Freq.
Word
Meaning

意义

sense

社会主义

socialism

主义

-ism

义务

duty

正义

justice

Component uses

Sound component in 4 characters (1 verified)

议 仪 蚁 舣

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ŋ(r)aj-s

ngjeH

yì

duty; justice


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 61.8933% of movies

659th most common character in movies

208th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

3

Traditional

義

Unicode

U+4E49


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