见 (xiàn) · to appear; to become visible; to be revealed

Meanings

1 to appear; to become visible; to be revealed

Characters

见

xiàn

to appear; to become visible; to be revealed

Examples

HSK 4

风吹草低见牛羊。

Fēngchuīcǎodīxiànniúyáng.

When the wind bends the grass low, the cattle and sheep appear.

HSK 7-9

青年才俊纷纷见头角。

Qīngnián cáijùn fēnfēn xiàn tóujiǎo.

Young talents emerged in droves.

Tips

history

The xiàn reading is older. Before 现 was created as a separate character, 见 did double duty: 'to see' (jiàn, active) and 'to appear / be seen' (xiàn, passive - what shows itself to the eye). When 现 took over the passive sense in everyday use, only a handful of classical phrases preserved the xiàn reading on 见. The two characters are still synonyms in this sense.

register

You meet 见 almost only in frozen classical material: the grassland line 风吹草低见牛羊 (Northern Dynasties folk song), the set phrase 见头角 ('to first show one's talent'), and a few Confucian quotations. In all modern writing - including modern translations of those very same lines - switch to 现. Default reading of the bare character is always jiàn unless the surrounding text is explicitly classical and the meaning is 'appear'.

Components

pictograph

见 xiàn

to see; to meet

Pictograph of a person with an enlarged eye on top - a stick figure where the head is replaced by a giant eye. The simplified form keeps the picture: the upper rectangle (originally 目, now flattened) sits on a pair of legs below. 见 is its own Kangxi radical (#147) and anchors 观, 觉, 览. Simplified from the traditional form, which kept the eye on a full pair of legs.

Radical

See Kangxi #147

The 'see' radical. A compound ideograph of 目 (eye) over 人 (person), simplified from traditional 見, a person with the eye prominently raised. Modestly productive, indexing characters of vision and perception: 观 (observe), 觉 (perceive), 览 (view), 视 (look at, although 视 is filed under 礻).