Meaning & readings
child, sign of the rat, 11PM-1AM, first sign of Chinese zodiac
Origin
The character 子 is a simple picture of a child or baby. The two strokes at the top represent the head, while the vertical stroke down the middle suggests the body. Over time, this straightforward image became the standard way to write the word for child in Chinese and Japanese. Because children represent new beginnings and potential, the character also came to mean "first" or "beginning," which is why it labels the first sign of the Chinese zodiac and the earliest hours of the night.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (子).
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 39
- Grade
- Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #72 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+05B50