zi, zǐ
child
Pictograph of a small child with its two arms waving.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
zi
offspring, child; fruit, seed of; 1st terrestrial branch; (noun suffix)
zǐ
son; child; seed; egg; small thing; 1st earthly branch: 11 p.m.-1 a.m., midnight, 11th solar month (7th December to 5th January), year of the Rat; Viscount, fourth of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wǔděngjuéwèi]; ancient Chinese compass point: 0° (north)
Component uses
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[ts]əʔ | tsiX | zǐ | 1st earthly branch |
*tsəʔ | tsiX | zǐ | child; gentleman, master |
Statistics
HSK level 1
Appears in 99.9359% of movies
47th most common character in movies
37th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 3 |
Unicode | U+5B50 |
Shuowen | “子,十一月陽气動,萬物滋,人以為偁。象形。,古文子,从巛,象髮也。,籀文子,囟有髮,臂、脛在几上也。” |
Sources
徐中舒《甲骨文字典》p.1571
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