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孽

niè
noun #16,960

Meanings

  1. 1 sin
  2. 2 evil
  3. 3 disaster
  4. 4 son born of a concubine

Examples

这都是自己造的孽。
Zhè dōu shì zìjǐ zào de niè.
This is all the karma you brought upon yourself.
他们前世结下了孽缘。
Tāmen qiánshì jié xià le nièyuán.
They were bound by an ill-fated connection from a past life.

Tips

culture
Strongly tied to Buddhist concepts of karma. 造孽 means 'to commit sins' and is a common colloquial expression, especially in southern dialects.

Components

radical
子 zǐ
child; son
Bottom child radical — the indexing radical, pictograph of a swaddled infant. Anchors 孽 in the kinship family with 孩 (child), 孙 (grandson), 孤 (orphan). 孽 specifically names a wayward or illegitimate child, and by metaphysical extension the karmic 'evil deeds' that produce bad consequences — 罪孽 (sin), 作孽 (commit evil).
phonetic
薛 xuē
place name; surname (here phonetic shell)
Top sixteen strokes form the 薛-shape, here functioning as a phonetic shell: xuē drifted heavily to niè through tone and onset shift. Historically this top was a related grass+辛 cluster meaning 'offshoot of a tree stump,' which still echoes in 孽 — an illegitimate offshoot of a family line. The visual match with 薛 is coincidence at the modern stage.

Stroke Order

孽 niè