Radical 23 or radical hiding () is one of the 23

Kangxi radical The 214 Kangxi radicals (), also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals () of Chinese characters. The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order Traditi ...

s (214 radicals total) composed of two

strokes Stroke (also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) or brain attack) is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, ...

. In the ''

Kangxi Dictionary The ''Kangxi Dictionary'' ( (Compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period), published in 1716, was the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from the 18th century through the early 20th. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing ...

'', there are 17 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this

radical Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics * Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe an ...

. In Traditional Chinese used in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, radical 23 (hiding enclosure, ), whose second stroke starts is a bit right to the starting point of the first stroke, is slightly different from radical 22 (right open box, ).' In

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...

, radical 22 and 23 were unified as right open box , and the nuance, as well as radical hiding enclosure, no longer exists in

Simplified Chinese characters Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters used in mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore, as prescribed by the '' Table of General Standard Chinese Characters''. Along with traditional Chinese characters, they are one ...

. This merger also applies to Traditional Chinese characters in China's GB character set. A similar merger was also made in

Japanese kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequent ...

, including their

kyūjitai ''Kyūjitai'' ( ja, 舊字體 / 旧字体, lit=old character forms) are the traditional forms of kanji, Chinese written characters used in Japanese. Their simplified counterparts are '' shinjitai'' ( ja, 新字体, lit=new character forms, la ...

forms in

JIS X 0208 JIS X 0208 is a 2-byte character set specified as a Japanese Industrial Standard, containing 6879 graphic characters suitable for writing text, place names, personal names, and so forth in the Japanese language. The official title of the curren ...

character set. Some Japanese dictionaries keep the two radicals in their indexes, but they both lead to the same merged radical.Examples include ''Shin Meikai Gendai Kanwa Jiten'' published by

Sanseidō is a Japanese publishing company known for publishing dictionaries and textbooks. Notable publications Dictionary * ''Daijirin is a comprehensive single-volume Japanese dictionary edited by , and first published by in 1988. This title is ...

. While its index lists both radicals, they both lead to the same merged radical. Characters that formerly belonged to radical 23 are listed orthodox

forms (e.g. ) under their entries (e.g. ), while their JIS kyūjitai forms (e.g. ) are treated as "alternative forms" ( ''betsutaiji'').

Evolution

File:匸-oracle.svg,

Oracle bone script Oracle bone script () is an ancient form of Chinese characters that were engraved on oracle bonesanimal bones or turtle plastrons used in pyromantic divination. Oracle bone script was used in the late 2nd millennium BC, and is the earliest kno ...

character File:匸-bronze.svg,

Bronze script Chinese bronze inscriptions, also commonly referred to as bronze script or bronzeware script, are writing in a variety of Chinese scripts on ritual bronzes such as ''zhōng'' bells and '' dǐng'' tripodal cauldrons from the Shang dynasty (2nd m ...

character File:匸-bigseal.svg,

Big seal script The large seal script or great seal script () is a traditional reference to Chinese writing from before the Qin dynasty (i.e. before 221 BCE), and is now popularly understood to refer narrowly to the writing of the Western and early Eastern Zho ...

character File:匸-seal.svg,

Small seal script The small seal script (), or Qin script (, ''Qínzhuàn''), is an archaic form of Chinese calligraphy. It was standardized and promulgated as a national standard by the government of Qin Shi Huang, the founder of the Chinese Qin dynasty. Name ...

character

Derived characters

Literature

* *`

References

External links

Unihan Database - U+5338
{{Kangxi Radicals

023 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...