姜 (jiāng): ginger

Measure Word

一块姜 kuài

Meanings

1 ginger

Characters

姜

jiang

ginger; a surname

Examples

炒菜的时候放点姜。

Chǎocài de shíhou fàng diǎn jiāng.

Add some ginger when stir-frying.

感冒了可以喝姜汤。

Gǎnmào le kěyǐ hē jiāngtāng.

When you have a cold, you can drink ginger soup.

Tips

culture

There's a famous proverb: 姜还是老的辣 (jiāng háishì lǎo de là) — 'old ginger is spicier.' It means experienced people are more capable, similar to 'wisdom comes with age.' Chinese people also believe ginger tea (姜茶) warms the body and fights off colds.

mistakes

As a surname, 姜 is written the same in simplified and traditional (姜). But as 'ginger' (the food), the traditional form is 薑 with the grass radical on top. Mainland China merged both into 姜.

Components

radical

女 nǚ

woman; female

Woman radical at the bottom — Kangxi 38 — marks 姜 as one of the ancient matrilineal surnames (姓), which characteristically use the 女 radical: 姚, 姬, 姒, 嬴, 妫. The radical underlines the surname's antiquity rather than any modern gendered sense.

phonetic

羊 yáng

sheep

Sheep on top — the bottom hook of standalone 羊 is absorbed into the 女 below, but stroke count still matches. 羊 yáng provides the sound for 姜 jiāng (the same Old-Chinese velar series). Originally the surname Jiāng marked the Qiang tribe — herders of sheep — so 羊 is also faintly semantic. Modern simplified 姜 also absorbed traditional 薑 (ginger), giving the food sense.