By Caren Zuo
匕 （bì )
Tell the difference of the character “人” and “匕”.
The Character for 匕
The Character for 人
They both displays a man’s figure in profile. But the man for the character “匕” is standing toward right, the opposite direction to the character “人”. Actually the character “匕” has nothing to do with “people” in modern Chinese and it is not listed in Top 1000 Most Frequent Used Chinese characters. But as an important radical, its original meaning is helpful for us to learn some combined ones.
Now, the main meanig of the character “匕” is “dagger”. In modern Chinese which two-character phrases are popular, we say “匕首” for “dagger”.
Useful Phrases:
匕首 （bì shǒu）