Except for the photographic characters that originated from carved symbols, other characters have a radical or are themselves radicals. In the most widely accepted table of radicals, there are 214. A radical is used in front of another character to tell something about the meaning of the word symbolized by the particular character, such as whether it is made of metal, is tall, etc. For example, 女 is the character for woman. It is also the radical for many female things: 姐姐 for elder sister, 妈妈 for mom, etc. Western culture talks about four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). The Chinese named five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Symbolized by characters, each can serve as an independent radical with at least one form. Today, we are going to see these and their variations. According to the Chinese traditional medicine and philosophy, the five elements are the fundamental components of the universe. 1. 金 jīn “gold” The character above is the radical for gold and...
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