乂

yì
verb

Meanings

  1. 1 to govern; to regulate; to bring order
  2. 2 to mow; to cut down

Examples

HSK 6
Tiānxià yì ān de shídài.
An age when the realm is well governed and the people at peace.
HSK 7-9
下民其咨,有能俾乂?
Xiàmín qí zī, yǒu néng bǐ yì?
The people below are in distress; is there anyone able whom I could charge with bringing it under control?

Tips

history
An ancient character. The original sense was mowing grass with shears; from "cutting things into order" it came to mean governing well, as in the classical phrase 乂安 (peace and good order).

Components

ideograph
乂 yì
to govern; mow
Just two crossing strokes, originally a picture of shears or crossed blades cutting grass. The modern form is an abstract X-shape that no longer recognisably depicts the tool, so it stands as a single indivisible graph.

Filed under radical 丿 (piě, #4) by convention. 丿 is not a separate component in 乂, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

乂 yì