气 (qì): air; gas

Meanings

1 air; gas
2 breath
3 anger

Characters

气

qì

air; gas; anger; spirit

Simplified from 氣, which showed steam rising from rice.

Examples

今天的空气很好。

Jīntiān de kōngqì hěn hǎo.

The air is very good today.

他很生气。

Tā hěn shēngqì.

He is very angry.

深呼一口气。

Shēn hū yìkǒuqì.

Take a deep breath.

Tips

culture

气 (qì) is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and medicine. It represents the vital life force or energy that flows through all living things. Practices like 太极拳 and 气功 focus on cultivating 气.

Components

pictograph

气 qì

air; breath; vital energy

Pictograph of rising vapour or steam — three drifting horizontal strokes capped by a sweep, depicting wisps of air. 气 is itself Kangxi radical 84 and is the philosophical 'qi' (vital energy). The traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) below to denote steam over cooking grain; the simplified form drops 米 and keeps the bare vapour glyph.

Radical

Vapor Kangxi #84

Pictograph of vapor curling upward from the ground. As an indexing radical 气 marks characters for gases and vapors — 氧 (oxygen), 氢 (hydrogen), 氮 (nitrogen), 氛 (atmosphere), 氟 (fluorine). One of the most consistent semantic radicals: nearly every modern character with 气 names a gas or atmospheric quality.