帜 (zhì) · flag, banner, ensign

Meanings

1 flag
2 banner
3 ensign

Characters

帜

zhì

flag; banner

Examples

HSK 7-9

他们独树一帜，创立了新的画派。

Tāmen dúshùyízhì, chuànglì le xīn de huàpài.

They struck out on their own and founded a new school of painting.

HSK 7-9

城楼上的旗帜在风中飘扬。

Chénglóu shàng de qízhì zài fēng zhōng piāoyáng.

The flags on the city wall fluttered in the wind.

Tips

usage

Rarely stands alone in modern Chinese - almost always in compounds: 旗帜 (qízhì, flag/banner), 独树一帜 (dúshùyīzhì, to set up a unique banner = to be original), 别树一帜 (similar).

memory

巾 'cloth' radical + 只 phonetic. The cloth radical hints at flags (also seen in 帆 'sail', 幕 'curtain'). Famous from 《史记》: 拔赵帜，立汉赤帜 - Han Xin's troops swap the Zhao banners for red Han banners to fake a complete victory.

Components

radical

巾 jīn

cloth; towel

Left-side cloth radical 巾 - pictograph of a strip of fabric hanging from a belt. It carries the meaning: 帜 names a banner or flag, a stretched cloth lifted on a pole. The radical anchors 帜 in the textile family alongside 旗 banner, 布 cloth, 帽 hat, 帐 curtain.

phonetic

只 zhī

single; only

Right side 只 supplies the sound - zhī shifting to zhì through the regular tone-change pattern seen in this phonetic series. The traditional form 幟 used 戠 instead of 只; the simplification kept the role but swapped in a more compact phonetic. Same 只-as-phonetic appears in 织 weave.