青 (qīng): green; blue; blue-green

Meanings

1 green; blue; blue-green
2 young; youthful
3 black (of hair)

Characters

青

qīng

blue-green; young; black

Examples

青春是美好的。

Qīngchūn shì měihǎo de.

Youth is wonderful.

青菜对健康很好。

Qīngcài duì jiànkāng hěn hǎo.

Green vegetables are good for health.

他是一个有为的青年。

Tā shì yígè yǒuwéi de qīngnián.

He is a promising young person.

Tips

usage

青 is used in: 青春 (youth), 青年 (young person), 青菜 (green vegetables), 青少年 (teenager). 青 is an ancient color term covering blue, green, and black — 青天 (blue sky), 青草 (green grass), 青丝 (black hair).

Components

semantic

龶 shēng

sprout; young growth

Top is a stylised form of 生 (sprout, life), reduced to 4 strokes from the standalone 5. It pictures a young plant growing — the source of the colour 'green' in 青. The original graph paired this sprout with 丹 (cinnabar well) below, giving the blue-green pigment from a mineral well.

semantic

月 yuè

moon (here: cinnabar well)

Bottom looks like 月 (moon) but historically depicts 丹 — a well containing cinnabar mineral, used to extract green/blue pigment. Modern stylization fused the well into the moon-shape. Together with the sprout above, the graph reads 'mineral pigment of growing plants' — the colour 青, covering blue-green-young-fresh.

Radical

Blue-Green Kangxi #174

A color radical covering the blue-green-black continuum of classical Chinese chromatics. Indexes a small but tight group of derivatives that play on this color or on freshness: 静, 靖, 靛, 靠. Composed of 生 (growing) over 丹 (mineral pigment), so the seed-meaning is the natural pigment of new plant life.