之 (zhī) · possessive particle (literary equivalent of 的)

Meanings

1 possessive particle (literary equivalent of 的)
2 of; 's
3 him/her/it (literary object pronoun)

Characters

之

zhī

(possessive particle); of

Examples

HSK 4

中国之美

Zhōngguó zhī měi

the beauty of China

HSK 5

长城是世界上最有名的建筑之一。

Chángchéng shì shìjiè shàng zuì yǒumíng de jiànzhù zhīyī.

The Great Wall is one of the most famous structures in the world.

Tips

usage

Classical/literary particle; 的 is the modern equivalent.

grammar

Very common in fractions: X分之Y = Y/X.

Components

pictograph

之 zhī

to go to; possessive particle

Originally a foot stepping out from a baseline - meaning 'to go to.' The walking-foot picture was later borrowed for the homophonous grammatical particle (possessive 'of' and object pronoun), now its dominant use. The 3-stroke modern shape is the brushed silhouette of that single moving foot, filed under Kangxi #4 丿 (piě) by stroke pattern.

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