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

HSK 3

青菜对健康很好。

Qīngcài duì jiànkāng hěn hǎo.

Green vegetables are good for health.

HSK 3

他是一个有为的青年。

Tā shì yí gè yǒuwéi de qīngnián.

He is a promising young person.

HSK 6

青春是美好的。

Qīngchūn shì měihǎo de.

Youth is wonderful.

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.