Where 己 comes from
A loom woven with thread
How to write 己 (jǐ, “oneself”)
己 (jǐ), an HSK 2 character, means “oneself” and “self”. It is a picture-like character. Among the HSK words it appears in 自己 (“oneself”), 知己 (“to know oneself”) and 身不由己 (“beyond one's control”). Japanese reads it ko, “self”, as a JLPT N1 kanji.
- Pinyin
- jǐ
- Strokes
- 3
- HSK
- 2
- Radical
- 己 (“oneself”)
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Horizontal-turn ㇕top leftrightwards → downwards
- Horizontal ㇐leftrightwards
- Vertical-curve-hook ㇟leftdown and right → rightwards → upwards
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 3 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Pinyin and meaning
| Pinyin | Meanings | Traditional | In words |
|---|---|---|---|
| jǐ third tone | oneself; self; sixth of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干 (shítiāngān); sixth in order; letter "F" or Roman "VI" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc | — | 自己 知己 身不由己 损人利己 |
- HSK 2025 syllabus
- level 2
- 2021 standard
- level 2
- HSK 2.0
- in a level 3 word
- Words with it
- 57 in CC-CEDICT
Words with 己
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 自己 | zìjǐ | oneself; (attributive) one's own HSK 2 |
| 知己 | zhījǐ | to know oneself; to be intimate or close HSK 7-9 |
| 身不由己 | shēnbùyóujǐ | (idiom) beyond one's control; unable to do anything about it HSK 7-9 |
| 损人利己 損人利己 | sǔnrén-lìjǐ | harming others for one's personal benefit (idiom); personal gain to… HSK 7-9 |
| 各抒己见 各抒己見 | gèshū-jǐjiàn | everyone gives their own view HSK 7-9 |
| 一己 | yījǐ | oneself |
| 小己 | xiǎojǐ | an individual |
| 己见 己見 | jǐjiàn | one's own viewpoint |
| 老己 | lǎojǐ | (neologism, attested by 2025) oneself, treated as an old friend |
| 事不关己 事不關己 | shìbùguānjǐ | a matter of no concern to oneself (idiom) |
HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).
Practice sheet
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Contain it:
HSK 2, in list order: