/
proper noun

Meanings

  1. 1 Di people, an ancient Tibeto-Burman tribe of NW China
  2. 2 third of the 28 lunar mansions (xiu)

Examples

HSK 4
Dī rén céng jiànlì Qiánqín wángcháo.
The Di people once founded the Former Qin dynasty.
HSK 7-9
Dī xiù shì dōngfāng qī xiù zhī yī.
The Di mansion is one of the seven eastern lunar lodges.

Tips

history
The were one of the major non-Han groups along the western frontier in the late Han through Sui period, linguistically Tibeto-Burman. Their chief political achievement was the 前秦 (351-394) under 苻坚, who briefly unified northern China before the disastrous Battle of Fei River. They appear constantly in the histories of the Sixteen Kingdoms period.
register
Tribe-name and astronomy uses only - both are first-tone Dī. Don't confuse with the homograph (third tone, 'foundation') which has its own separate entry.

Components

radical
shì
clan; family name
Upper (Kangxi #83, clan) - anchors the tribe-name sense. The radical depicted a person bending to the earth, by extension 'lineage'.
ideograph
one (here a marker stroke)
Bottom horizontal - an indicator stroke marking the 'base / bottom' of . This original 'base' sense is what survives in the homograph dǐ ('foundation').

Stroke Order