郤 (xì): (used as a surname) Xi

Meanings

1 (used as a surname) Xi
2 (archaic) variant of 隙: crack; gap; rift; ill feeling

Characters

郤

xì

Xi (surname); crack

Examples

春秋时晋国有势力很大的郤氏。

Chūnqiū shí Jìn guó yǒu shìlì hěn dà de Xì shì.

In the Spring and Autumn period the Jin state had a powerful Xi clan.

Tips

history

郤 is not used independently in modern Chinese. It serves as a rare surname and as an old variant of 隙 (crack, rift). The 'rift / ill feeling' sense survives in the classical idiom 前郤 (a past grudge).

Components

radical

阝 yì

city; settlement (right-side 邑 form)

The right-side 阝 is the city radical (a squeezed 邑), used because the graph began as a place / fief name. It is the same right-ear seen in 都 and 邦.

phonetic

谷 gǔ

valley

谷 (valley) on the left is the sound element here; the reading moved from gǔ to xì. A valley is also a kind of cleft, faintly echoing the 'gap / crack' meaning the character shares with 隙.