Radical 120 or radical silk () meaning "

silk Silk is a natural fiber, natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be weaving, woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is most commonly produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoon (silk), c ...

" is one of the 29

Kangxi radicals The ''Kangxi'' radicals (), also known as ''Zihui'' radicals, are a set of 214 radicals that were collated in the 18th-century '' Kangxi Dictionary'' to aid categorization of Chinese characters. They are primarily sorted by stroke count. They ...

(214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. In the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' () is a Chinese dictionary published in 1716 during the High Qing, considered from the time of its publishing until the early 20th century to be the most authoritative reference for written Chinese characters. Wanting ...

'', there are 823 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. is also the 148th indexing component in the ''

Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components ''The Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components'' () is a lexicography, lexicographic tool used to order the Chinese characters in mainland China. The specification is also known as GF 0011-2009. In China's normative documents, "radical" is ...

'' predominantly adopted by

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one that is simpler (usually shorter), according to a well-founded ordering. Examples include: ...

dictionaries published in

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, with the left component forms (simp.) and (trad.) being its associated indexing components.

Evolution

File:糸-oracle.svg,

Oracle bone script Oracle bone script is the oldest attested form of written Chinese, dating to the late 2nd millennium BC. Inscriptions were made by carving characters into oracle bones, usually either the shoulder bones of oxen or the plastrons of turtl ...

character File:糸-bronze.svg,

Bronze script Chinese bronze inscriptions, also referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, comprise Chinese writing made in several styles on ritual bronzes mainly during the Late Shang dynasty () and Western Zhou dynasty (771 BC). Types of bron ...

character File:糸-seal.svg,

Small seal script The small seal script is an archaic script style of written Chinese. It developed within the state of Qin during the Eastern Zhou dynasty (771–256 BC), and was then promulgated across China in order to replace script varieties used i ...

character

Derived characters

(the simplified form of ) falls under

radical 1 Radical 1 or radical one () meaning " one" is one of the 6 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 1 stroke. It is the simplest Chinese character in the language due to consisting of only one line. In the '' Kangxi Dictionary'', ther ...

().

Variant forms

File:いとへん.png, Traditional printing form of as a left component File:糹-order.gif, Preferred stroke order of the left component form in

regular script The regular script is the newest of the major Chinese script styles, emerging during the Three Kingdoms period , and stylistically mature by the 7th century. It is the most common style used in modern text. In its traditional form it is the t ...

File:纟-order.gif, Stroke order of the simplified form This radical character takes different forms in different languages and characters. In traditional typefaces, regardless of the position of the radical character, the two turning strokes are broken into two respectively to adapt to the carving of

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable Sort (typesetting), components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric charac ...

systems, and there is usually a gap between the second and the third strokes, and the middle stroke of the last three strokes is a vertical line and is written prior to the rest two strokes (middle-left-right). In actual handwriting, however, when the radical character is used as a left component, the last three strokes are more often written as dots from left to right () rather than middle-left-right, especially in

. Currently, when used independently or as a bottom component (as in , , etc.), the discontinuous turning strokes are merged into one, and a hook is added to the end of the vertical line to imitate the character's handwriting form in both printed

and

Traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

. When used as a left component, it is simplified as in Simplified Chinese, which is derived from the cursive form of . The standard printing form of the traditional left component form is also altered to imitate the handwriting form, and the last three strokes are also written left-to-right. In addition, in mainland China's Guo Biao traditional Chinese characters, the first dot in the last three strokes of tilts to the left, while in Taiwan's

Standard Form of National Characters The ''Standard Form of National Characters'' or the ''Standard Typefaces for Chinese Characters'' () is the standardized form of Chinese characters set by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Lists There are three lists ...

, all three dots are written rightward. The more traditional typeface form is still widely used in Traditional Chinese publication The traditional form remains standard in modern Japanese and Korean printing typefaces, while in handwriting, both forms are acceptable.

Sinogram

The radical is also used as an independent

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

. It is one of the

Kyōiku kanji The are kanji which Japanese elementary school students should learn from first through sixth grade. Also known as , these kanji are listed on the . The table is developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT). Although t ...

or Kanji taught in elementary school in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is a first grade kanji

References

Literature

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External links

Unihan Database - U+7CF8
{{Simplified Chinese radicals Kyōiku kanji 120 148