馗 (kuí): crossroads / thoroughfare (lite…

Meanings

1 crossroads / thoroughfare (literary)
2 cheekbone (literary)
3 (in 钟馗) Zhong Kui, the demon-quelling figure

Characters

馗

kuí

thoroughfare / cheekbone

Examples

HSK 6

钟馗是中国民间的捉鬼神。

Zhōng Kuí shì Zhōngguó mínjiān de zhuō guǐshén.

Zhong Kui is the demon-catching deity of Chinese folk religion.

HSK 7-9

九馗指四通八达的大道。

Jiǔ kuí zhǐ sìtōng-bādá de dàdào.

'Nine kui' refers to thoroughfares branching in all directions.

Tips

history

Mostly survives today in the name 钟馗, the bearded, bug-eyed demon-queller of Tang legend. His painted image is hung at New Year and Duanwu Festival to ward off evil spirits.

Components

radical

首 shǒu

head

Right side 首 is the indexing radical, picturing a head with hair on top. Here it contributes the 'principal; main' sense, the chief of all roads, which is what a 馗 thoroughfare is. The character is most famous today as the second half of 钟馗, the demon-quelling folk figure.

semantic

九 jiǔ

nine

Upper-left 九 acts as a graphic component, not the number 'nine'. The original sense was 'nine-fold crossroad', a great intersection where many roads converged. Combined with 首 below, the image is 'the head of the nine roads', i.e. a major thoroughfare.