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Discover the 214 radicals and understand Chinese character structure
The 214 radicals are named after Emperor Kangxi (康熙, 1654-1722) of the Qing Dynasty, who commissioned the famous "Kangxi Dictionary" (康熙字典) published in 1716. This dictionary standardized the system of 214 radicals that we still use today to classify Chinese characters.
Every Chinese character contains at least one radical, which often gives a clue about the character's meaning. For example, characters with the radical 氵(water) are often related to water: 河 (river), 海 (sea), 洗 (wash).
氵 — water | 木 — wood | 人 — person | 口 — mouth
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