How did people decide which part of the character is a radical for it?

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Nov 25 • 855 read

In complex characters there are sometimes 2-3 elements that can be radicals but only one of them really is, and sometimes it is difficult to say, why this element and not the other is the radical (like in 灵 the radical is 彐 but the dictionary says that 灵 means 'soul' and 彐 means 'pig head', but what's common between a soul and a pig head?)

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Best Answer

techan

The original word for 灵 is 靈 and the radical is 雨。btw the radical for 灵 is 火。When the Hanzi already simplified, some radical also change.

1 • Reply • Nov 26

SamaelArc Author

Thanks for your reply, it was very interesting to learn that the radicals were changed when the characters were simplified. And speaking about 灵 character, the dictionary here https://cidian.ru/r.php?q=灵 gave theradical as 彐, but after I read your reply I looked in other sources and found here https://www.purpleculture.net/dictionary-details?word=灵 that "Radical: 火 Pictophonetic: 彐 indicates the sound; 火 (fire) conveys the meaning." So it seems that both parts have some meaning for the whole character.
And how did it happen that the radicals were changed when simplifying if they should point out the most important element? If I got it right, the original radical was with the meaning "rain", but in simplified character it means "fire" - but how can fire replace rain? Sorry for such a long question again.

0 • Reply • Nov 28

Tina Teacher

靈 (from ~BC 770), top and bottom structures:
霝 (líng), the rain to fall
巫, sorcerer
靈: a sorcerer dancing around the fire to pray to God for rain in the Chu State (BC 1115 - 223);

灵 (from ~AD 960), top and bottom structures, the radical is 火,
( refer to the radical dictionary of Modern Chinese: http://www.hydcd.com/zidian )
彑 (jì), pig head. ( 彑 changed to 彐, the original 彐 radical which means 雪 (snow) )
火, fire
灵: a sorcerer dancing around the fire to pray to God for anything, maybe some pig head as the sacrificial offering;

靈 and 灵, both mean a sorcerer praying for something, with these elements of fire, rain, and pig head.

So, now the 灵 is mainly related to the soul and God's things.

(more)

2 • Reply • Dec 02

SamaelArc Author

Thanks for your reply

0 • Reply • Dec 03

Joanna Teacher

since Hanzi has been used so long for more than 5000 years, it changed a lot , the structure and strocks became more easy and simple for us to write to read and to remanber ,some part of radical can still explain the meaning of Hanzi , some are not, so sorry make you confuse about it.

0 • Reply • Nov 28

SamaelArc Author

Thanks for your reply and don't worry, after all it's not you who made me confused about it, so don't be sorry! PErhaps I just want to know too much, to understand what's in the base of many things

0 • Reply • Nov 29

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SamaelArc

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Feb 06 Visited

From Izevsk, Russian federation

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