斋 (zhāi): to fast / abstain from meat and…

Meanings

1 to fast / abstain from meat and alcohol
2 vegetarian diet (Buddhist)
3 study room or studio (literary)
4 to give alms to monks

Characters

斋

zhāi

fast / vegetarian / study room

Examples

HSK 3

她每月初一都吃斋。

Tā měiyuè chūyī dōu chī zhāi.

She eats a vegetarian diet on the first of every month.

HSK 7-9

这家寺庙提供免费的斋饭给信众。

Zhè jiā sìmiào tígōng miǎnfèi de zhāi fàn gěi xìnzhòng.

This temple provides free vegetarian meals to devotees.

Tips

culture

In Chinese Buddhist practice, 吃斋 refers to observing a vegetarian diet as a form of religious devotion. Many lay Buddhists eat vegetarian on the 1st and 15th of the lunar month. 斋戒 means a full religious fast. The character also appears in 书斋, a scholar's study.

Components

radical

文 wén

pattern; markings

The top 文 is the indexing Kangxi radical for the simplified 斋. Originally 齋 was a complex graph for ritual abstinence built around an altar element; the reform replaced its upper portion with 文 as a phonetic-and-lookup anchor for the new compact shape.

semantic

而 ér

beard; and

The bottom 而-shape is a stylized residue of the traditional 齋's lower body. It carries the 'fasting, ritual purity, study chamber' core meaning that 斋 preserves in 斋戒 and 书斋 (study).