Chinese Character Wiki
壬

rén

9th heavenly stem

Original meaning: 

thread spool

Pictograph of a warp beam used for holding silk in, also known as a spool. The modern meaning "9th heavenly stem" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

壬 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
壬 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
壬 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
壬 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
壬 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

壬  

rén

9th heavenly stem; ninth of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shí​tiān​gān]; ninth in order; letter "I" or Roman "IX" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc; ancient Chinese compass point: 345°; nona

Most common words with 壬
Freq.
Word
Meaning

壬

nona

壬辰

twenty-ninth year I5 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2012 or 2072

壬午

nineteenth year I7 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2002 or 2062

壬子

forty-ninth year I1 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1972 or 2032

壬申

ninth year I9 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1992 or 2052

Component uses

Sound component in 6 characters (1 verified)

任 妊 飪 饪 衽 纴

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*n[ə]m

nyim

rén

9th heavenly stem


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

4029th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+58EC

Shuowen

“壬，位北方也。陰極陽生，故《易》曰：‘龍戰于野。’戰者，接也。象人褢妊之形。承亥壬以子，生之敘也。與巫同意。壬承辛，象人脛。脛，任體也。”


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