adjective

Meanings

  1. 1 (classical) black; dark silk
  2. 2 (classical) Buddhist monk's black robe

Examples

素衣缁衣
Jiě sùyī, yì zīyī ér fǎn.
He took off the plain robe, put on the black one and went back.

Tips

history
Not a free word now; it survives in literary set phrases — 缁衣 (a monk's robe) and 缁素 (clergy and laity, literally black-and-white). The right side is the phonetic, also seen in and .
culture
Because monks wore black, 缁衣 became a poetic name for the Buddhist clergy, contrasted with the white of lay people.

Components

radical
silk; thread
The silk radical is in left-side form. It marks as a word about dyed cloth — silk dyed deep black.
phonetic
zāi
phonetic (zī series)
Supplies the sound. gives the zī reading and heads a small phonetic family — , , — all read zī.

Stroke Order