漢字Kanji · in Time & Sequence
自: oneself
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
ジji · on'yomi · in compounds
- 自慢するじまんするboast
- 自転車じてんしゃbicycle
- 自動車じどうしゃautomobile
- 自由じゆうfreedom
- 自分じぶんoneself
- 自信じしんself-confidence
- 独自どくじoriginal, independent
シshi · on'yomi
- 自然なしぜんなnatural
みずからmizukara · kun'yomi · on its own
- 自らみずからby one's self
おのずからonozukara · kun'yomi
- 自ずからおのずからnaturally
Also read おのずと, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A nose – original form of 鼻 (“nose”). Later phonetically borrowed as an instance of jiajie (假借) for 自 (“oneself; from”).
Source: Wiktionary, 自 (rev. 92691450), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji for referring to oneself, the point where a journey begins, or things that happen automatically (from their own nature).”
Connections
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zì
Same form: 自 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 自 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 自 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin zì most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.