昭 (zhāo) · bright, clear, manifest

Meanings

1 bright
2 clear
3 manifest
4 to show clearly

Characters

昭

zhāo

bright / clear / evident

Examples

HSK 6

昭君出塞是中国历史上著名的故事。

Zhāo jūn chū sài shì Zhōngguó lìshǐ shàng zhùmíng de gùshi.

Wang Zhaojun's journey to the frontier is a famous story in Chinese history.

HSK 7-9

真相已昭然若揭。

Zhēnxiàng yǐ zhāorán-ruòjiē.

The truth is now perfectly clear for all to see.

Tips

register

昭 is a classical character. In modern Chinese it appears mainly in fixed phrases: 昭然若揭 (obvious for all to see), 昭示 (to make clear / to manifest), and in personal or place names such as 昭君 and 昭通.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Left sun radical - pictograph of the sun with a stroke at the centre. Indexes 昭 in the brightness family with 明 bright, 旺 flourishing, 晴 clear-skied. 昭 means 'bright, clear, manifest,' so the sun radical names the source of the illumination - what is plain as day.

phonetic

召 zhào

to summon; to call

Right side 召 supplies the sound zhào exactly. 召 itself pictures a hand-above-mouth giving the imperial call to attendance - and 昭 inherits a faint sense of 'making something officially known.' Same phonetic in 招 to beckon, 照 to shine on, 沼 pond, 诏 imperial edict - a tight family.