仄 (zè): slanting; oblique

Meanings

1 slanting; oblique
2 narrow; cramped
3 uneasy (in the mind)
4 oblique tones (in classical poetry, as opposed to level tone)

Characters

仄

zè

slanting; narrow; oblique tone

Examples

HSK 7-9

格律诗讲究平仄相间。

Gélǜ shī jiǎngjiu píng zè xiāngjiàn.

Regulated verse requires the alternation of level and oblique tones.

HSK 7-9

山路狭仄，仅容一人通行。

Shānlù xiá zè, jǐn róng yī rén tōngxíng.

The mountain path is so narrow that only one person can pass at a time.

Tips

culture

Most learners meet 仄 in 平仄, the bedrock of classical Chinese prosody. 平 = level tone (modern 1st and 2nd tones); 仄 = oblique = old 上声 (rising), 去声 (falling), and 入声 (entering) syllables.

memory

The character itself is a picture of obliqueness: 人 (a person) tucked sideways under 厂 (a cliff) - leaning, narrow, uneasy. The shape encodes all three meanings.

Components

radical

人 rén

person

Inside, 人 - pictograph of a person standing, drawn here tucked under the cliff overhang. The indexing radical for 仄. A person bent or tilted under low rock is exactly the image of obliqueness and narrowness that the character names.

semantic

厂 hǎn

cliff; overhang

Upper-left 厂 - pictograph of a cliff face or overhanging slope. Wraps over the person inside, setting the scene: somebody crouching beneath a low rock ledge. Combined with 人, the picture gives the etymological 'leaning, slanted, oblique' meaning of 仄.