Zhèbù bēijù jiǎngshù le yígè wángzǐ bèipò shìfù de gùshi.
This tragedy tells the story of a prince forced to kill his father.
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history
弑 is a strong moral term in classical Chinese — it never means a neutral 'kill', but specifically the killing of a social superior: 弑君 (regicide), 弑父 (patricide), 弑师 (killing one's teacher). Confucian texts like 《春秋》 famously use 弑 to brand a death as illegitimate murder rather than a justified execution; choosing 弑 vs 杀 was itself a moral verdict.
register
Almost never used in everyday speech. Modern uses are confined to literary, historical, and translated contexts (e.g. 弑神 'to slay a god' in fantasy, 弑亲 'patricide / matricide' in news stories about family killings). For ordinary 'kill', use 杀.
杀 supplies the killing sense. Standalone 杀 has 6 strokes, but here on the left it contracts to a 4-stroke form to share space with the phonetic. 弑 is a specific killing — a subordinate murdering a superior. Indexed under Kangxi #56 弋 (yì, ceremonial dart) by tradition via the slanted dart-shape on the right.
式 gives the sound shì cleanly and adds a flavour of formality — 式 means ritual, ceremony, prescribed pattern. Together with 杀 it paints the act as a structured, formally recognised crime against the proper order, not a random killing.
Filed under radical 弋 (yì, #56) by convention. 弋 is not a separate component in 弑, so no strokes are highlighted.
