札 (zhá): letter; note; written message

Meanings

1 letter; note; written message
2 thin piece of wood used as a writing tablet (ancient)
3 official document (historical)

Characters

札

zhá

letter; writing tablet

Examples

他留下了一封手札，记录了当时的见闻。

Tā liúxià le yī fēng shǒu zhá, jìlù le dāngshí de jiànwén.

He left behind a handwritten note recording what he saw and heard at the time.

这本书收录了他的书信和札记。

Zhè běnshū shōulù le tā de shūxìn hé zhá ji.

This book collects his letters and notes.

Tips

history

Before paper was invented, the Chinese wrote on thin strips of bamboo or wood — these were called 札. The character shows wood (木) with a cutting knife, referring to the strips being cut for writing.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left-side tree radical — pictograph of a tree, the indexing component. 札 originally named a thin wooden tablet used for writing before paper became common; from those tablets came the senses 'letter, note, document' (信札 letter, 札记 jottings). The wood radical points directly to the writing surface itself.

phonetic

乚 yǐ

hidden / curved stroke (here phonetic mark)

Right side is the single curved stroke 乚, a stylised hook used here as the phonetic. yǐ shifts to zhá through old reconstructed alternations; in the related 扎 zhá and 轧 yà / zhá it plays the same minimal phonetic role. Read it as a sound-marker shape rather than a content character.