Rén 人
The character for 'person', and the radical found in many characters to do with people.
Meaning
As a radical it usually takes the narrow form 亻 on the left of a character, as in 你 'you' and 他 'he'.
Origin and history
The earliest form, on Shang dynasty oracle bones, is a standing figure. Over the following centuries the figure was pared down until only the two strokes of the modern character remained.
How the form changed
- Drawing to come
a Oracle bone script (Shang dynasty, c. 1250–1050 BCE). A standing figure in profile, arm reaching forward.
- Drawing to come
b Bronze script (Western Zhou dynasty).
- Drawing to come
c Small seal script (Qin dynasty, 3rd century BCE).
- Drawing to come
d Clerical script (Han dynasty).
- Drawing to come
e Regular script (From the 3rd century CE). The modern form.
Read next
- Next in Chinese radicalsNǚ 女The character for ‘woman’ and ‘girl’, and radical 38 of the 214 Kangxi radicals, under which characters to do with women are filed.
- The same shape in Tarot cardsNine of WandsThe nine of wands in the tarot's Minor Arcana: a man leaning on his staff before eight others standing like a palisade. A. E. Waite read it as strength in opposition.
See also
Shān 山, Zǐ 子, Kǒu 口, Xīn 心, Shǒu 手, Mù 目.
Sources
- Unihan data for U+4EBA, Unicode Han Database (Unihan), Unicode Consortium, kRSUnicode; kTotalStrokes; kKangXi; kDefinition; kSemanticVariant
- Unihan data for U+4EBB, Unicode Han Database (Unihan), Unicode Consortium, kRSUnicode; kDefinition
- Unihan data for U+4F60, Unicode Han Database (Unihan), Unicode Consortium, kRSUnicode; kDefinition
- Unihan data for U+4ED6, Unicode Han Database (Unihan), Unicode Consortium, kRSUnicode; kDefinition
- Chinese writing (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy, 19 November 2025), Top questions; History
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 3, 2026. How we research
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