卩 (jié): ancient form of 节; a tally or s…

Meanings

1 ancient form of 节; a tally or seal of authority
2 an envoy's credential token (archaic)

Characters

Tips

history

卩 is the ancestor of 节 (jié, joint / tally / festival). Originally it depicted a kneeling person and was used as the credential token an envoy carried — a knotted bamboo tally split between two parties as proof of identity.

usage

卩 is never used as a free word today. As a radical it sits on the right side of characters about kneeling, ritual, or seals: 卯, 印, 即, 却, 卷, 卸. The variant 㔾 appears in a handful of historical forms.

Components

pictograph

卩 jié

tally; seal of authority; kneeling figure

卩 depicts a person in kneeling posture — bent at the knees, body squared. In ancient ritual it doubled as the shape of a split tally or seal: an envoy held one half as proof of authority. Today it survives almost exclusively as a radical inside other characters.

Radical

Seal Kangxi #26

The 卩 radical, originally a pictograph of a kneeling person and the proto-form of 节. A productive right-side radical for characters involving kneeling, ritual, sealing, or submission: 卯, 印, 即, 却, 卷, 卸. Indexes one of the oldest semantic clusters in the script.

Forms

卩 jié

Default 9 characters

㔾 jié

Right 4 characters