漢字Kanji · in States & Attributes
青: blue, green
- 龶(form)
- 月meat(form)
龶 and 月 are drawn in
Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Bronze: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Four readings, and the words that use each
セイsei · on'yomi · in compounds
- 青春せいしゅんspringtime of life
- 青年せいねんyouth
ショウshou · on'yomi
- 緑青ろくしょうcopper rust
あおao · kun'yomi · on its own
- 青空あおぞらblue sky
- 青白いあおじろいpale
- 青信号あおしんごうgreen light
あおいaoi · kun'yomi
- 青いあおいblue, pale
Also read あお-, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Phono-semantic compound (形聲)生 (sound) + 井 (sound)
Zhang (2022): Phono-semantic compound (形聲): phonetic 生 + phonetic 井.
Source: Wiktionary, 青 (rev. 92199441), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“The base kanji representing the core colors of nature and the peak of youth (as in "seishun" - springtime of youth).”
Connections
青 gives its sound to
The family reading is セイ (sei). Sound parts: KanjiVG.
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · qīng
Same form: 青 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 青 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 青 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin qīng most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.