侠 (xiá) · hero, vigilante, chivalrous person

Meanings

1 hero
2 vigilante
3 chivalrous person

Characters

侠

xiá

hero; chivalrous person

Examples

HSK 4

他是一个真正的侠。

Tā shì yígè zhēnzhèng de xiá.

He is a true hero.

HSK 5

古代的侠行走江湖。

Gǔdài de xiá xíngzǒu jiānghú.

Heroes of ancient times roamed the land.

Tips

culture

侠 refers to a chivalrous figure who fights injustice, central to the 武侠 genre of martial arts fiction.

memory

A person (亻) who holds something tightly (夹) - someone who holds onto justice.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left indexing person radical 亻 - left-side form of 人. A 侠 is fundamentally a kind of person, defined by character rather than rank. Same family as 仁 (benevolent), 任 (responsibility), 信 (trust), 偷 (steal) - all human-quality words.

phonetic

夹 jiā

to flank

Right 夹 (simplified from 夾) supplies the sound (jiā → xiá through j/x palatalization). 夾 originally depicted a person 大 with two smaller figures tucked under each arm, lending a faint flavor of "one who flanks and protects" - fitting the chivalrous bodyguard sense of 侠. Same phonetic: 峡 (gorge), 狭 (narrow), 颊 (cheek).