劫 (jié): to rob

Meanings

1 to rob
2 to plunder
3 calamity
4 disaster

Characters

劫

jié

to rob; calamity

Examples

HSK 3

银行被劫了。

Yínháng bèi jié le.

The bank was robbed.

HSK 7-9

经历了这场浩劫之后，城市慢慢恢复了。

Jīnglì le zhè chǎng hàojié zhīhòu, chéngshì mànmàn huīfù le.

After going through this catastrophe, the city slowly recovered.

Tips

usage

As a verb, 劫 means to rob (劫持, 打劫). As a noun, it means catastrophe/calamity (浩劫, 劫难). In Buddhism, 劫 (kalpa) refers to an immensely long period of time.

Components

radical

力 lì

strength; force

Right 力 - indexing radical for 劫. Pictures a plough or muscular arm. Marks 劫 as an act of force: robbery is forced taking, calamity is forced misfortune. Same strength-radical family as 努 (strive), 助 (help), 加 (add), 动 (move). The combined image is 'forcing-away' - taking by raw power, a fitting picture of plunder.

phonetic

去 qù

go; depart

Left 去 - supplies the sound (qù → jié, with significant Old Chinese drift; the relationship is opaque in modern Mandarin but consistent with the historical phonetic series). Itself meaning 'to go, depart,' which fits 劫 semantically too: robbery is the forced taking-away of something, making the victim part with what was theirs.