The Hand FamilyRadical 手
Dozens of actions, each with its own character
ShuowenShuowen: “Hand is the fist. Pictograph of the five fingers.”
The hand is the body’s most dexterous part — and the character’s greatest shape-shifter: 扌, 又, 爪, 寸, 攵 are all hands in different poses. The ancients split the hand’s work into dozens of precise verbs — pick, hold, grasp, lift, push, pull — never confusing one with another; then they paired two hands and told the human stories: friendship, rivalry, giving and receiving.
The Root Character · Reading “手” in Three Layers
See the form
The oracle form of 手: five fingers spread, palm clear.
Read the logic
On a character’s left it becomes 扌 (beat, lift); pointing down it is 爪 (claw: pick, seek); a single hand is 又 (take, reach); three strokes make 爫 (receive, love); one mark makes 寸 (give, seal) — same hand, different postures.
Grasp the wisdom
“Receive” (受) and “bestow” (授) were one character: the upper hand gives, the lower hand takes. Later a 扌 was added for the active side — to give and to receive share one root, and all courtesy lives in the exchange.
The Making of a Glyph
- Oracle boneFive fingers spread, like a rake.
- BronzeFingers merge into the palm; the wrist thickens.
- Small sealFive fingers folded into three, the middle one raised.
- Clerical & regularHooked strokes settle into the modern 手.
Glyphs are schematic reconstructions, not rubbings.
The Chain of Actions
Direction, force, purpose — the ancients drew fine lines between the hand’s actions and gave each its own character.
From the gentlest touch to full forceShuowen: “to pluck” — a claw over a tree.
Fingers reaching to a branch, taking gently: the hand’s tenderest action.
The Chain of Giving
What can happen between two hands? The ancients took the act of exchange apart with great care.
From receiving to passing onA hand catching a man — to reach, to come up to.
A hand seizes the person ahead: “in time” (来得及) means the hand arrived.
Character Assembly · Two Parts Become One
When two parts walk toward each other, a new character is born. Watch how they meet.
友 yǒu
FormTwo right hands, moving the same way.
LogicIn oracle script, two hands aligned in one direction: working together. Shuowen: “friends are those who share a purpose.”
WisdomFriend’s first meaning is not feeling but action — hands pulling in the same direction are friends.
争 zhēng
FormOne claw-hand above, one hand below, a thing caught between.
LogicTwo hands contesting one object — the picture of contention, unchanged in three thousand years.
WisdomThe character shows a tug-of-war: both hands want the same thing. Rivalry, drawn once and for all.
及 jí
FormA hand catching a running figure.
LogicShuowen: “及, to reach.” The root meaning: to come up with, to catch.
WisdomTo catch up is 及; to fail is 不及. “Out of reach” — losing by one hand’s length.
寸 cùn
FormA hand with a mark one inch below the palm — the pulse point.
LogicShuowen: “an inch below the hand, where the artery beats — the cùn point.” Measure taken from the body.
WisdomInch, measure, proportion — the Chinese sense of 分寸 (a sense of proportion) began at the wrist. Even judgment has a anatomy.
Branches of the Family
Hover (or tap) a character to see what it means.
The 扌 Verbs
The hand radical at full dress — the largest family of action words.
- 打
- 抱
- 摘
- 拂
- 搓
- 拽
- 撩
- 扶
Tales of the 又 Hand
又 is the right hand — two of them tell of teamwork and contest.
- 取
- 受
- 反
- 双
- 度
- 叔
- 支
- 叛
The Claw Down
A hand pointing down is a claw — grasping, covering, stamping.
- 觅
- 爬
- 爱
- 印
- 孚
- 爰
- 妥
- 奚
Measure from the Wrist
An inch below the hand is law — 寸 characters are about rules.
- 付
- 夺
- 寻
- 导
- 封
- 尊
- 射
- 辱
「Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for life.」
—— Proverb
「A sense of proportion is what the hand taught the Chinese mind.」
—— Ziyuan