祁 (Qí): surname Qi

Meanings

1 surname Qi
2 large, vast

Characters

祁

qí

surname Qi; vast

Examples

HSK 4

他姓祁，是山西祁县人。

Tā xìng Qí, shì Shānxī Qí xiàn rén.

His surname is Qi; he is from Qi County in Shanxi.

HSK 5

祁连山位于甘肃和青海之间。

Qí lián shān wèiyú Gānsù hé Qīnghǎi zhījiān.

The Qilian Mountains lie between Gansu and Qinghai.

Tips

culture

Ancient surname tracing back to the Spring and Autumn period statesman 祁奚 of the Jin state, a Confucian model for recommending talent without nepotism. Today the name appears in places: 祁县 in Shanxi, 祁连山 (Qilian Mountains), 祁阳 in Hunan.

mistakes

Don't confuse with 祈 (to pray). 祁 has 阝 (right-side ear, originally 邑 meaning settlement/place) - fitting for a surname and place name; 祈 has 斤 (jīn, axe).

Components

radical

礻 shì

altar; ritual; spirit

The left 礻 is the altar/spirit radical in left-side form (4-stroke variant of 示). It is the indexing Kangxi radical for 祁 and links the graph to a family of ritual-and-spirit characters (神, 祝, 福, 祭), framing 祁 in the religious-vocabulary lookup family.

phonetic

阝 yì

city; right-side mound

The right 阝 (city radical on the right side) supplies the sound and a faint city/place semantic flavor. 祁 is primarily a place name and surname (祁县 in Shanxi, 祁连山 mountains), so the city-radical anchor reinforces its geographical use.