<p>If you want to study character's origin, you have to look up references like 說文解字 instead of Wiktionary, which may be incomplete or incorrect.</p>

<p>The original character of 冰 is 仌. You may look up the original text of 說文解字 <a href="http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/18878.png" rel="nofollow">here</a>.
When it is in 冬, it becomes two lines at the bottom as you describe.</p>

<p>冫is not simplified from 氷, but 氷 is simplified from 冰, which is a modern variant of old character 仌/冫. </p>

<p>永 is pictograph of <a href="http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/111620.png" rel="nofollow">long running water</a>.</p>

<p>次 does not have the radical 冫, its radical should be 欠 and the other compound is 二/two/second.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T11:57:54.020Z
as commented above, it can be argued that 二 should be considered the radical of 次. then again, there are many characters with two or more semantic components, and you'd have to single out for the purpose of sorting them into a dictionary. also, even Kangxi's dictionary has hundreds, maybe thousands of characters that have been assigned rather arbitrary radicals just so they could put them somewhere.
flow
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:13:23.420Z
2014-09-02T03:13:23.420Z
AngelLeliel
<p>氷 is just equal to 冰 from pronunce to meaning.  But modern Chinese doesn't use this character, Japanese use it as 冰.
   永 is made part by 水, so it is considered radicals by 水 （not 冫）, and actually it's orgininal meaning in ancient Chinese is long water or water long in writing sequence, that's how it is contacted with water. And it's meaning transfered to long later, and now it most means forever.
   冬 radicals by 夂, not 冫，冭 radicals by 冫, I believe it's just a simple character disassembly without meaning.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:19:19.803Z
冬 radicals by 冫, not 夂. [康熙字典](http://kx.cdict.info/kxwwwcdict.php?word=%E5%86%AC) [教育部國語字典](http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%A5V&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=-319830970&serial=1&recNo=8&op=f&imgFont=1) [說文解字 從仌](http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/18814.png)
AngelLeliel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:24:14.540Z
冬 radicals by 夂, 新华字典, maybe that's the difference between simplified and tradional chinese.
user6269
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:33:37.053Z
冬 radicals by 冫for more than a thousand of years. It is indeed the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese.
AngelLeliel
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:49:03.080Z
If you mention for history for thousand of years, you will find 冬 both radicals by 夂 and by 冫instead, it comes from 説文解字, 冬，四時盡也。从仌，从夂。
user6269
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T13:17:58.580Z
从仌从夂 means "仌 and 夂 are ***semantic components***". The [radical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_characters)) is "a graphical component of a Chinese character under which the character is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary". The semantic component and the radical are not always the same. Although 說文 has both radical 夂 and radical 仌, 冬 is only listed under 仌.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T02:17:44.833Z
2014-09-02T02:17:44.833Z
user6269
<p>The confusion arises due to at least two reasons:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>「冫」 did not originally mean <em>ice</em>. 「冫」 originally represented the word 「鉼」 (Mandarin: <strong>bǐng</strong>, <em>metal disks</em>); later, it was used for the meaning <em>ice</em> (<strong>bīng</strong>) as a phonetic loan (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus#Rebus_principle" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>rebus</em></a>).</p></li>
<li><p>Pleco lists 「冫」 as a component of 「水」 and 「永」. In terms of analysing the function of character components and character history, this is not a correct decomposition: <strong>「水」 and 「永」 do not contain 「冫」</strong>.</p></li>
</ol>

<hr>

<p><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou" rel="nofollow noreferrer">西周</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">金</a><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/TufWF.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/TufWF.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br>⿱一丞卣<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5318&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成5318</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">秦</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips" rel="nofollow noreferrer">簡</a><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/DcdHO.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/DcdHO.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br>日乙227 冬<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuihudi_Qin_bamboo_texts" rel="nofollow noreferrer">睡虎地秦簡</a></kbd><kbd>今<br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/tByCw.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tByCw.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br><br>　</kbd></p>

<p>「冫」 was originally a shape variant of <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=510" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「呂」 (<em>picture of forged copper plates</em></a>, later written 「鋁」), representing a similar word meaning <em>forged metal plates</em>. <em>Forged metal plates</em> is now written as 「鉼」 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Zhengzhang OC</a>: <strong>/*peŋʔ/</strong>).</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>「鋁」 is now repurposed to mean <em>aluminium</em>.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>「冫」 was originally used as a semantic component to do with <em>metalworking</em> or <em>metal objects</em>:</p>

<ul>
<li>「冶」 - <em>to smelt metal</em></li>
<li>「匀」 - <em>ancient weight measurement</em>, now written as 「鈞」</li>
<li><p>「金」 - <strong>/*krɯm/</strong>, <em>metal</em>, compound of 「冫」 (<em>metal plates</em>), semantic 「王」 (<em>metal battle weapon</em> > <em>power/authority</em> > <em>king</em>) and phonetic <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=84" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「今」</a> (also <strong>/*krɯm/</strong>)</p>

<p><kbd>西周<br>金<br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/x4NBA.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/x4NBA.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br>過伯簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=3907&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成3907</a></kbd><kbd>西周<br>金<br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/knLiN.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/knLiN.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br>師㝨簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4313&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成4313</a></kbd><kbd><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">秦</a><br>簡<br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/9WY6B.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/9WY6B.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/QinwenziReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">日甲</a>90背<br>睡虎地秦簡</kbd><kbd>今<br>楷<br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/6RUNY.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/6RUNY.png" alt="enter image description here"></a><br><br>　</kbd></p></li>
</ul>

<p>The meaning <em>ice</em> (<strong>/*pŋrɯŋ/</strong>) is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus#Rebus_principle" rel="nofollow noreferrer">phonetic loan</a>, and later on 「冫」 gained the meaning of <em>ice</em>. Hence,</p>

<ul>
<li>「冰」 (<em>ice</em>) is made from the phonetically loaned word (<strong>/*pŋrɯŋ/</strong>) and semantic 「水」 (<em>water</em>);</li>
<li>「冷」 (<em>cold</em>) is made from 「冫」 after it gained the meaning of <em>ice</em>,</li>
<li>「冬」 (<em>end</em>, now written 「終」) contained 「冫」 after it gained the meaning of <em>ice</em>,</li>
</ul>

<p>...etc.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Shuowen</em></a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">small seal</a> form 「仌」 is likely a deliberate change from 「冫」 to exclusively indicate the word <strong>/*pŋrɯŋ/</strong> (<em>ice</em>) rather than the original word <strong>/*peŋʔ/</strong> (<em>metal plates</em>). Unfortunately, 「仌」 does not survive as a handwritten word or character component today.</p>
</blockquote>

<hr>

<p><em>Dictionary radicals</em> are not really functional parts of characters, and the rest of the characters mentioned in the question do not contain 「冫」:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=114" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「冭」 is a variant of 「太」, where the bottom two dots are distinguishing marks</a> added to differentiate the word from 「大」;</li>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=255" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「永」 depicts a <em>long river network</em></a>, extended to mean <em>long (time)</em> > <em>forever</em>;</li>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=401" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「次」 (<em>next, secondary, inferior</em>) is composed of semantic 「二」 (<em>two</em>) and semantic 「欠」 (<em>picture of a person sighing</em></a> > <em>insufficient</em>).</li>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=147" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「水」 is a picture of <em>flowing water</em></a>.</li>
</ul>

<hr>

<p><strong>References:</strong></p>

<ul>
<li>季旭昇《說文新證》</li>
<li><a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">小學堂</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">國學大師</a>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-28T18:15:51.263Z
Pleco lists the last two strokes of both 水 and 永 (on the right) as 冫.  This is probably where some confusion comes from.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-29T04:43:17.307Z
@Becky李蓓 thanks! I'll put that in the answer too, if you don't mind.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-10-26T13:20:51.347Z
2020-01-29T04:47:04.533Z
2020-01-29T04:47:04.533Z
dROOOze
<p>Hopefully, this explanation can be somewhat helpful.</p>

<ol>
<li>" [冫]" denotes "ice", so most of the words with " 冫" relate to " cool, cold, low temperature, etc." </li>
<li>" [氵]" denotes "water", so most of the words with " 氵" relate to " river, sea, rain, etc." </li>
<li>" [灬]" denotes "fire", so most of the words with " 灬" relate to " fire, hot, high temperature, etc."</li>
</ol>

<p>There are more explanations for radicals learning here: <a href="http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/search?q=radical&amp;f_collectionId=5485fbc8e4b0fbc1be3e1abe" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/search?q=radical&amp;f_collectionId=5485fbc8e4b0fbc1be3e1abe</a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/2HDGh.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2HDGh.jpg" alt="冫, 氵 and 灬"></a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-06-30T22:01:53.493Z
2016-06-30T22:07:00.940Z
2016-06-30T22:07:00.940Z
Jerymy G
<h2>Brief Answer</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>Q1. The Wiktionary list of characters with the 冫 radical contains the following two characters: 冬, 冭. Where in these characters is the 冫? Are the two lines at the bottom supposed to be the ice radical?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Answer</strong>: You're right. That's true.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q2. When I look at the entry for 永 in the Chinese dictionary app on my phone (Pleco), then it says that it's radical is 水 and that it has 冫 as a component. This makes no sense to me. If 水 was the radical, shouldn't it be written as 氵? And where is the 冫? I see that 永 differs from 水 by two lines at the top, but is this really supposed to be the ice &quot;radical&quot; 冫?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Answer</strong>: The radical of 永 is 水, but it doesn't have the radical 冫. The top of 永 has nothing to do with 冫.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q3. In the Wiktionary entry for 冫 , it says that 冫 is a radical that has been simplified from 氷. What character is 氷? It doesn't seem to be a Chinese character. Is this some ancient form of 冰?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Answer</strong>: 氷 was the vulgar form of 冰 in ancient China. It's obsolete in China but adopted in Japan nowadays. As @AngelLeliel has pointed out,  冫 is not a radical simplified from 氷, but 仌.</p>
<br>
<h2>Detailed Answer</h2>
<p>This is a very good question, yet, as a native speaker I understand some of the &quot;truth&quot; are controversial. Anyway the facts will be listed here, but you don't have to agree with my subjective opinion :)</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Fact 1.</strong></em> 次, 习 have the &quot;ice radical&quot;? No, it's not fine with experts in mainland China or people who use traditional Chinese.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In <em>现代汉语词典</em> (<em>Modern Chinese Dictionary</em>, which is considered as one of the most popular authoritative dictionary in mainland China), <strong>次</strong> is indexed under the radical 冫 and the radical 欠. However in <em>中華民國教育部重編國語辭典修訂本</em> (<em>Chinese Dictionary Revised Edition</em>, the authoritative one in Taiwan), it is indexed only under 欠.</p>
<p>The reason for <em>Chinese Dictionary Revised Edition</em> not listing 次 under radical 冫 is 次 has nothing to do with 冰. The ancient character forms of 次 are <br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3IkeU.gif" alt="次" />from <em>Shuowen</em>, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/NVgzk.png" alt="次秦简" />from bamboo scripts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_(state)" rel="noreferrer">Qin</a>, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/5fijr.png" alt="次甲骨" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/qppgr.png" alt="次甲骨二" />from oracle scripts. It is clear that after later oracle scripts, 二 defines the main meaning of 次 as &quot;the second&quot;. <em>说文段注 Duan's Annotation to Shuowen</em> in Qing Dynasty said &quot;當作从二，从欠。从二故爲次。&quot; (次 should have radicals 二 and 欠. Having the radical 二 thus it's the second.) It is interesting that all major dictionaries haven't put 次 under the 二 radical. Personally I think that's because they all follow the convention of <em>Shuowen</em>.</p>
<p>The simplified character <strong>习</strong> is under the radicals  (乙) and 冫 in the <em>Modern Chinese Dictionary</em>. However the corresponding traditional character 習 has the radical 羽 (feather of birds). It's clear:
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/F8Kks.gif" alt="習" />from <em>Shuowen</em>, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/wZVAV.png" alt="習甲" /><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/sPjPM.png" alt="習甲2" />from oracle scripts, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/9kz9L.png" alt="習楚簡" />from bamboo scripts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)" rel="noreferrer">Chu</a>. However note that <em>Shuowen</em>'s &quot;从羽从白&quot; (having the radicals 羽 and 白) theory is not true -- there're material evidence from oracle and bamboo scripts proving the bottom part is not 白 but 日. The character just illustrated &quot;birds study flying on a sunny day&quot;, so it meant &quot;study&quot; (opinion from Guo Moruo's <em>卜辭通纂考釋</em>).</p>
<p>Now you may feel dissatisfied for the way that dictionaries of simplified Chinese classify 次 and 习. However, if you forget the whole story above, it may be the only way you can find it in a dictionary for the simplified character forms. 二 in 次 or feather in 习 have been written as 冫 for a long history as it's more convenient (OK I think some experts may insist my referring to Taiwan's standard glyphs <a href="http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%8B%E5%AD%97%E6%A8%99%E6%BA%96%E5%AD%97%E9%AB%94" rel="noreferrer">國字標準字體</a> here but let's not go so far if you're not learning traditional Chinese). So if you don't care about the etymology, keep considering 冫 is the radical of 次 and 习 can be a self-consistent theory in your mind. I guess that's what the experts think when they compile the dictionaries for simplified Chinese.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Fact 2.</strong></em> A not-so-exact-but-easy theory &quot;两点冰，三点水，四点火&quot; -- two points denote &quot;ice&quot;; three points denote &quot;water&quot;; four points denote &quot;fire&quot;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Let's see the original character 仌 for 冰:<br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/DeaOk.png" alt="仌" />from bronze scripts, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/4BmQk.png" alt="仌" />from <em>Shuowen</em>.<br>
It illustrated the texture on ice, and became two horizontal strokes when coming to clerical scripts:<br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ZWTwl.gif" alt="冬" /> =&gt; <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3SxOx.gif" alt="冬" />, <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/D2ljZ.gif" alt="冰" /> =&gt; <img src="https://i.sstatic.net/z7DOy.gif" alt="冰" />.<br>
Thus when it came to regular scripts, the &quot;two points&quot; under 冬 and 冭 were written as two &quot;down point&quot;, and the &quot;two points&quot; on the left of 冰 were written as 冫, possibly for the aesthetic reason.</p>
<p>Similarly, 氵 came from what 水 was written in bamboo scripts of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_(state)" rel="noreferrer">Qin</a>:<br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0em6U.png" alt="河" />河<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pNPk7.png" alt="注" />注<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/domzd.png" alt="沙" />沙</p>
<p>It is a rarely known fact that 氵 appeared in Qin state before the seal scripts became the standard in the early Qin Dynasty:<br>
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Jtb2t.gif" alt="河" />河<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/tzdOR.gif" alt="注" />注<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/XCMHR.gif" alt="沙" />沙, the left component is 水 in seal scripts.</p>
<p>Thus, as 氵 and 水 stand for the same thing, water, they often shared the same entry of indices in ancient Chinese dictionaries like Kangxi Dictionary.</p>
<p>Similarly again, 灬 often stands for 火, fire. 灬 and 火 shared the same entry of indices in Kangxi Dictionary.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Fact 3.</strong></em> 永 has several versions of explanation, but none of them is related to &quot;冫ice&quot;.
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/M08Ei.png" alt="永" /></p>
</blockquote>
<p>《說文》：“永，長也，象水巠理之長。《詩》曰：‘江之永矣’。”高鴻縉《中國字例》：“按：此‘永’字，即潛行水中之‘泳’字之初文。原从人在水中行，由文人彳生意，故託以寄游泳之意……後人借用為長永，久而為借意所專，乃加水旁作‘泳’以還其原。”《說文新證》：“从｀彳’表示水行，｀卜’形象水巠理，全字象河水流行，巠理衍長之貌。｀卜’形或訛為人形，於是其旁又增象水形的曲筆。＂<br>
<em>Shuowen</em>: &quot;永, long, illustrates the length of a river. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Poetry" rel="noreferrer"><em>Classic of Poetry</em></a> says 'The length of the Jiang (river), cannot be navigated with a raft'&quot;</p>
<p>Gao Hongjin's <em>中國字例 Examples of Chinese Characters</em>: &quot;Note: this character 永 is the original character of 泳 that denotes diving and swimming in the water. In the beginning its semantic element is people swimming in the water, the 人 and 彳 parts, so it's borrowed to mean swimming ... later it's borrowed to mean 長永 (permanent, with the same sound), and stuck to this meaning for a long time, so 水 was added making it 泳 to denote the original meaning swimming.&quot;</p>
<p><em>說文新證</em>: &quot;彳 denotes moving, 卜 illustrates a river. The whole character illustrates a running river, meaning the view of a long river. The shape of 卜 might be wrongly written as the shape of people 人, so curves are added to illustrate the shape of water.&quot;</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T12:36:24.807Z
Very informative ! :) +1
Sektor
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-05T04:11:53.937Z
Unexpected masterclass. Thanks Stan!!
Manuel Araoz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T03:32:30.820Z
2014-09-02T07:44:24.967Z
2020-06-17T09:50:11.587Z
Stan
<p>As far as I know, the character for "ice" is 冰, and the radical derived from it is 冫 . I find it a bit weird that the ice radical 冫 is the radical for the ice character 冰 itself (ice + water = ice again?), but I am happy to just accept that. I know a few characters with the ice radical, e.g. 次, 习 or 冷, and that seems perfectly fine to me.</p>

<p>However, there are a few things that confuse me.</p>

<p>(1) The <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:Chinese_radical/%E5%86%AB">Wiktionary list of characters with the 冫 radical</a> contains the following two characters: 冬, 冭. Where in these characters is the 冫? Are the two lines at the bottom supposed to be the ice radical?</p>

<p>(2) When I look at the entry for 永 in the Chinese dictionary app on my phone (Pleco), then it says that it's radical is 水 and that it has 冫 as a component. This makes no sense to me. If 水 was the radical, shouldn't it be written as 氵? And where is the 冫? I see that 永 differs from 水 by two lines at the top, but is this really supposed to be the ice "radical" 冫? (I it's the 冫 radical, how can 水 be a radical of 永 at the same time?)</p>

<p>(3) In the <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%AB">Wiktionary entry for 冫</a> , it says that 冫 is a radical that has been simplified from 氷. What character is 氷? It doesn't seem to be a Chinese character. Is this some ancient form of 冰?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T02:18:04.160Z
I don't know what level of Chinese you aimed at. I'm pretty sure most Chinese don't know the answer to this. The Chinese Character is not alphabetical. Unless you are archaeologist, you can do well without knowing these rules (if there really are any).
George Chen
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T02:27:27.333Z
氷 is a variant of 冰。The radicals of 习、冬 is 勹，夂，not 冫。  冭 is not used today，a ancient character for 太 and 泰。 Your question makes me confused too，I don't know
why，I have never thought about  that sort of things， those can't be split explicitly left and right，top and bottom，or outer and inner part，like 日、月、 山、水、牛、羊、犬、隹、人、止、子、戈、矢
sfy
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-09-02T11:49:30.613Z
i'm afraid statements like '夂 *is* the radical of 冬' or '冫 *is* the radical of 冬' do not make sense, strictly speaking. radicals are a (rather late) intellectual fabrication by (most importantly) 許慎 Xu Shen and 梅膺祚 Mei Yingzuo who singled out character components to base their dictionaries (說文解字 and 字彙) on. individual characters have often been re-assigned to other radicals when the authors thought it would benefit readers. so only '冬 is found under 夂 in source A, but 冫 in source B' makes sense.
flow
<characters><character-identification><radicals>
Confusion about the ice radical 冫
# Confusion about the ice radical 冫

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-09-02)

As far as I know, the character for "ice" is 冰, and the radical derived from it is 冫 . I find it a bit weird that the ice radical 冫 is the radical for the ice character 冰 itself (ice + water = ice again?), but I am happy to just accept that. I know a few characters with the ice radical, e.g. 次, 习 or 冷, and that seems perfectly fine to me.

However, there are a few things that confuse me.

(1) The [Wiktionary list of characters with the 冫 radical](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:Chinese_radical/%E5%86%AB) contains the following two characters: 冬, 冭. Where in these characters is the 冫? Are the two lines at the bottom supposed to be the ice radical?

(2) When I look at the entry for 永 in the Chinese dictionary app on my phone (Pleco), then it says that it's radical is 水 and that it has 冫 as a component. This makes no sense to me. If 水 was the radical, shouldn't it be written as 氵? And where is the 冫? I see that 永 differs from 水 by two lines at the top, but is this really supposed to be the ice "radical" 冫? (I it's the 冫 radical, how can 水 be a radical of 永 at the same time?)

(3) In the [Wiktionary entry for 冫](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%86%AB) , it says that 冫 is a radical that has been simplified from 氷. What character is 氷? It doesn't seem to be a Chinese character. Is this some ancient form of 冰?

**Tags:** characters, character-identification, radicals

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I don't know what level of Chinese you aimed at. I'm pretty sure most Chinese don't know the answer to this. The Chinese Character is not alphabetical. Unless you are archaeologist, you can do well without knowing these rules (if there really are any).  
> **username_2**: 氷 is a variant of 冰。The radicals of 习、冬 is 勹，夂，not 冫。  冭 is not used today，a ancient character for 太 and 泰。 Your question makes me confused too，I don't know why，I have never thought about  that sort of things， those can't be split explicitly left and right，top and bottom，or outer and inner part，like 日、月、 山、水、牛、羊、犬、隹、人、止、子、戈、矢  
> **username_3**: i'm afraid statements like '夂 *is* the radical of 冬' or '冫 *is* the radical of 冬' do not make sense, strictly speaking. radicals are a (rather late) intellectual fabrication by (most importantly) 許慎 Xu Shen and 梅膺祚 Mei Yingzuo who singled out character components to base their dictionaries (說文解字 and 字彙) on. individual characters have often been re-assigned to other radicals when the authors thought it would benefit readers. so only '冬 is found under 夂 in source A, but 冫 in source B' makes sense.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_6 on 2014-09-02. Score: 18 | Accepted answer

## Brief Answer

> Q1. The Wiktionary list of characters with the 冫 radical contains the following two characters: 冬, 冭. Where in these characters is the 冫? Are the two lines at the bottom supposed to be the ice radical?

**Answer**: You're right. That's true.

> Q2. When I look at the entry for 永 in the Chinese dictionary app on my phone (Pleco), then it says that it's radical is 水 and that it has 冫 as a component. This makes no sense to me. If 水 was the radical, shouldn't it be written as 氵? And where is the 冫? I see that 永 differs from 水 by two lines at the top, but is this really supposed to be the ice "radical" 冫?

**Answer**: The radical of 永 is 水, but it doesn't have the radical 冫. The top of 永 has nothing to do with 冫.

> Q3. In the Wiktionary entry for 冫 , it says that 冫 is a radical that has been simplified from 氷. What character is 氷? It doesn't seem to be a Chinese character. Is this some ancient form of 冰?

**Answer**: 氷 was the vulgar form of 冰 in ancient China. It's obsolete in China but adopted in Japan nowadays. As @username_4 has pointed out, 冫 is not a radical simplified from 氷, but 仌.

  

## Detailed Answer

This is a very good question, yet, as a native speaker I understand some of the "truth" are controversial. Anyway the facts will be listed here, but you don't have to agree with my subjective opinion :)

> ***Fact 1.*** 次, 习 have the "ice radical"? No, it's not fine with experts in mainland China or people who use traditional Chinese.

In *现代汉语词典* (*Modern Chinese Dictionary*, which is considered as one of the most popular authoritative dictionary in mainland China), **次** is indexed under the radical 冫 and the radical 欠. However in *中華民國教育部重編國語辭典修訂本* (*Chinese Dictionary Revised Edition*, the authoritative one in Taiwan), it is indexed only under 欠.

The reason for *Chinese Dictionary Revised Edition* not listing 次 under radical 冫 is 次 has nothing to do with 冰. The ancient character forms of 次 are   
![次](https://i.sstatic.net/3IkeU.gif)from *Shuowen*, ![次秦简](https://i.sstatic.net/NVgzk.png)from bamboo scripts of [Qin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_(state)), ![次甲骨](https://i.sstatic.net/5fijr.png)![次甲骨二](https://i.sstatic.net/qppgr.png)from oracle scripts. It is clear that after later oracle scripts, 二 defines the main meaning of 次 as "the second". *说文段注 Duan's Annotation to Shuowen* in Qing Dynasty said "當作从二，从欠。从二故爲次。" (次 should have radicals 二 and 欠. Having the radical 二 thus it's the second.) It is interesting that all major dictionaries haven't put 次 under the 二 radical. Personally I think that's because they all follow the convention of *Shuowen*.

The simplified character **习** is under the radicals (乙) and 冫 in the *Modern Chinese Dictionary*. However the corresponding traditional character 習 has the radical 羽 (feather of birds). It's clear:
![習](https://i.sstatic.net/F8Kks.gif)from *Shuowen*, ![習甲](https://i.sstatic.net/wZVAV.png)![習甲2](https://i.sstatic.net/sPjPM.png)from oracle scripts, ![習楚簡](https://i.sstatic.net/9kz9L.png)from bamboo scripts of [Chu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)). However note that *Shuowen*'s "从羽从白" (having the radicals 羽 and 白) theory is not true -- there're material evidence from oracle and bamboo scripts proving the bottom part is not 白 but 日. The character just illustrated "birds study flying on a sunny day", so it meant "study" (opinion from Guo Moruo's *卜辭通纂考釋*).

Now you may feel dissatisfied for the way that dictionaries of simplified Chinese classify 次 and 习. However, if you forget the whole story above, it may be the only way you can find it in a dictionary for the simplified character forms. 二 in 次 or feather in 习 have been written as 冫 for a long history as it's more convenient (OK I think some experts may insist my referring to Taiwan's standard glyphs [國字標準字體](http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%8B%E5%AD%97%E6%A8%99%E6%BA%96%E5%AD%97%E9%AB%94) here but let's not go so far if you're not learning traditional Chinese). So if you don't care about the etymology, keep considering 冫 is the radical of 次 and 习 can be a self-consistent theory in your mind. I guess that's what the experts think when they compile the dictionaries for simplified Chinese.

> ***Fact 2.*** A not-so-exact-but-easy theory "两点冰，三点水，四点火" -- two points denote "ice"; three points denote "water"; four points denote "fire".

Let's see the original character 仌 for 冰:  
![仌](https://i.sstatic.net/DeaOk.png)from bronze scripts, ![仌](https://i.sstatic.net/4BmQk.png)from *Shuowen*.  
It illustrated the texture on ice, and became two horizontal strokes when coming to clerical scripts:  
![冬](https://i.sstatic.net/ZWTwl.gif) => ![冬](https://i.sstatic.net/3SxOx.gif), ![冰](https://i.sstatic.net/D2ljZ.gif) => ![冰](https://i.sstatic.net/z7DOy.gif).  
Thus when it came to regular scripts, the "two points" under 冬 and 冭 were written as two "down point", and the "two points" on the left of 冰 were written as 冫, possibly for the aesthetic reason.

Similarly, 氵 came from what 水 was written in bamboo scripts of [Qin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_(state)):  
![河](https://i.sstatic.net/0em6U.png)河![注](https://i.sstatic.net/pNPk7.png)注![沙](https://i.sstatic.net/domzd.png)沙

It is a rarely known fact that 氵 appeared in Qin state before the seal scripts became the standard in the early Qin Dynasty:  
![河](https://i.sstatic.net/Jtb2t.gif)河![注](https://i.sstatic.net/tzdOR.gif)注![沙](https://i.sstatic.net/XCMHR.gif)沙, the left component is 水 in seal scripts.

Thus, as 氵 and 水 stand for the same thing, water, they often shared the same entry of indices in ancient Chinese dictionaries like Kangxi Dictionary.

Similarly again, 灬 often stands for 火, fire. 灬 and 火 shared the same entry of indices in Kangxi Dictionary.

> ***Fact 3.*** 永 has several versions of explanation, but none of them is related to "冫ice".
> ![永](https://i.sstatic.net/M08Ei.png)

《說文》：“永，長也，象水巠理之長。《詩》曰：‘江之永矣’。”高鴻縉《中國字例》：“按：此‘永’字，即潛行水中之‘泳’字之初文。原从人在水中行，由文人彳生意，故託以寄游泳之意……後人借用為長永，久而為借意所專，乃加水旁作‘泳’以還其原。”《說文新證》：“从｀彳’表示水行，｀卜’形象水巠理，全字象河水流行，巠理衍長之貌。｀卜’形或訛為人形，於是其旁又增象水形的曲筆。＂  
*Shuowen*: "永, long, illustrates the length of a river. [*Classic of Poetry*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_of_Poetry) says 'The length of the Jiang (river), cannot be navigated with a raft'"

Gao Hongjin's *中國字例 Examples of Chinese Characters*: "Note: this character 永 is the original character of 泳 that denotes diving and swimming in the water. In the beginning its semantic element is people swimming in the water, the 人 and 彳 parts, so it's borrowed to mean swimming ... later it's borrowed to mean 長永 (permanent, with the same sound), and stuck to this meaning for a long time, so 水 was added making it 泳 to denote the original meaning swimming."

*說文新證*: "彳 denotes moving, 卜 illustrates a river. The whole character illustrates a running river, meaning the view of a long river. The shape of 卜 might be wrongly written as the shape of people 人, so curves are added to illustrate the shape of water."

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: Very informative ! :) +1  
> **username_11**: Unexpected masterclass. Thanks username_6!!  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2014-09-02. Score: 3

If you want to study character's origin, you have to look up references like 說文解字 instead of Wiktionary, which may be incomplete or incorrect.

The original character of 冰 is 仌. You may look up the original text of 說文解字 [here](http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/18878.png).
When it is in 冬, it becomes two lines at the bottom as you describe.

冫is not simplified from 氷, but 氷 is simplified from 冰, which is a modern variant of old character 仌/冫.

永 is pictograph of [long running water](http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/111620.png).

次 does not have the radical 冫, its radical should be 欠 and the other compound is 二/two/second.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: as commented above, it can be argued that 二 should be considered the radical of 次. then again, there are many characters with two or more semantic components, and you'd have to single out for the purpose of sorting them into a dictionary. also, even Kangxi's dictionary has hundreds, maybe thousands of characters that have been assigned rather arbitrary radicals just so they could put them somewhere.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2014-09-02. Score: 2

氷 is just equal to 冰 from pronunce to meaning. But modern Chinese doesn't use this character, Japanese use it as 冰.
永 is made part by 水, so it is considered radicals by 水 （not 冫）, and actually it's orgininal meaning in ancient Chinese is long water or water long in writing sequence, that's how it is contacted with water. And it's meaning transfered to long later, and now it most means forever.
冬 radicals by 夂, not 冫，冭 radicals by 冫, I believe it's just a simple character disassembly without meaning.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: 冬 radicals by 冫, not 夂. [康熙字典](http://kx.cdict.info/kxwwwcdict.php?word=%E5%86%AC) [教育部國語字典](http://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?cond=%A5V&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&ukey=-319830970&serial=1&recNo=8&op=f&imgFont=1) [說文解字 從仌](http://dict2.variants.moe.edu.tw/bookpiece/001/18814.png)  
> **username_5**: 冬 radicals by 夂, 新华字典, maybe that's the difference between simplified and tradional chinese.  
> **username_4**: 冬 radicals by 冫for more than a thousand of years. It is indeed the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese.  
> **username_5**: If you mention for history for thousand of years, you will find 冬 both radicals by 夂 and by 冫instead, it comes from 説文解字, 冬，四時盡也。从仌，从夂。  
> **username_6**: 从仌从夂 means "仌 and 夂 are ***semantic components***". The [radical](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_characters)) is "a graphical component of a Chinese character under which the character is traditionally listed in a Chinese dictionary". The semantic component and the radical are not always the same. Although 說文 has both radical 夂 and radical 仌, 冬 is only listed under 仌.  

---

### Answer by username_7 on 2018-10-26. Score: 2

The confusion arises due to at least two reasons:

1. 「冫」 did not originally mean *ice*. 「冫」 originally represented the word 「鉼」 (Mandarin: **bǐng**, *metal disks*); later, it was used for the meaning *ice* (**bīng**) as a phonetic loan ([*rebus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus#Rebus_principle)).
2. Pleco lists 「冫」 as a component of 「水」 and 「永」. In terms of analysing the function of character components and character history, this is not a correct decomposition: **「水」 and 「永」 do not contain 「冫」**.

---

`西周  
金  
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/TufWF.png)  
⿱一丞卣  
集成5318``秦  
簡  
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/DcdHO.png)  
日乙227 冬  
睡虎地秦簡``今  
楷  
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/tByCw.png)`

「冫」 was originally a shape variant of [「呂」 (*picture of forged copper plates*](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=510), later written 「鋁」), representing a similar word meaning *forged metal plates*. *Forged metal plates* is now written as 「鉼」 ([Zhengzhang OC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Zhengzhang_(1981%E2%80%931995)): **/\*peŋʔ/**).

> 「鋁」 is now repurposed to mean *aluminium*.

「冫」 was originally used as a semantic component to do with *metalworking* or *metal objects*:

* 「冶」 - *to smelt metal*
* 「匀」 - *ancient weight measurement*, now written as 「鈞」
* 「金」 - **/\*krɯm/**, *metal*, compound of 「冫」 (*metal plates*), semantic 「王」 (*metal battle weapon* > *power/authority* > *king*) and phonetic [「今」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=84) (also **/\*krɯm/**)

  `西周  
  金  
  ![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/x4NBA.png)  
  過伯簋  
  集成3907``西周  
  金  
  ![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/knLiN.png)  
  師㝨簋  
  集成4313``秦  
  簡  
  ![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/9WY6B.png)  
  日甲90背  
  睡虎地秦簡``今  
  楷  
  ![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/6RUNY.png)`

The meaning *ice* (**/\*pŋrɯŋ/**) is a [phonetic loan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebus#Rebus_principle), and later on 「冫」 gained the meaning of *ice*. Hence,

* 「冰」 (*ice*) is made from the phonetically loaned word (**/\*pŋrɯŋ/**) and semantic 「水」 (*water*);
* 「冷」 (*cold*) is made from 「冫」 after it gained the meaning of *ice*,
* 「冬」 (*end*, now written 「終」) contained 「冫」 after it gained the meaning of *ice*,

...etc.

> [*Shuowen*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi)'s [small seal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script) form 「仌」 is likely a deliberate change from 「冫」 to exclusively indicate the word **/\*pŋrɯŋ/** (*ice*) rather than the original word **/\*peŋʔ/** (*metal plates*). Unfortunately, 「仌」 does not survive as a handwritten word or character component today.

---

*Dictionary radicals* are not really functional parts of characters, and the rest of the characters mentioned in the question do not contain 「冫」:

* [「冭」 is a variant of 「太」, where the bottom two dots are distinguishing marks](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=114) added to differentiate the word from 「大」;
* [「永」 depicts a *long river network*](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=255), extended to mean *long (time)* > *forever*;
* [「次」 (*next, secondary, inferior*) is composed of semantic 「二」 (*two*) and semantic 「欠」 (*picture of a person sighing*](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=401) > *insufficient*).
* [「水」 is a picture of *username_3ing water*](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=147).

---

**References:**

* 季旭昇《說文新證》
* [小學堂](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/)
* [國學大師](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/)
  + [中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/)

> **Comments:**
> **username_8**: Pleco lists the last two strokes of both 水 and 永 (on the right) as 冫.  This is probably where some confusion comes from.  
> **username_7**: @Becky李蓓 thanks! I'll put that in the answer too, if you don't mind.  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2016-06-30. Score: 0

Hopefully, this explanation can be somewhat helpful.

1. " [冫]" denotes "ice", so most of the words with " 冫" relate to " cool, cold, low temperature, etc."
2. " [氵]" denotes "water", so most of the words with " 氵" relate to " river, sea, rain, etc."
3. " [灬]" denotes "fire", so most of the words with " 灬" relate to " fire, hot, high temperature, etc."

There are more explanations for radicals learning here: <http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/search?q=radical&f_collectionId=5485fbc8e4b0fbc1be3e1abe>
[![冫, 氵 and 灬](https://i.sstatic.net/2HDGh.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/2HDGh.jpg)


---

