<p>for oracle bone script:</p>
<p><a href="https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/oraclePiece.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">漢語多功能字庫 甲骨部件表</a></p>
<p>for bronze script:</p>
<p><a href="https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/bronzePiece.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">漢語多功能字庫 金文部件表</a></p>
<p>for regular script (楷書) in traditional chinese, the ministry of digital affairs of taiwan , maintains the website 「CNS11643中文標準交換碼全字庫」(aka 全字庫), that, has this page, in the scrollable area:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cns11643.gov.tw/search.jsp?ID=13" rel="nofollow noreferrer">全字庫 部件查詢</a></p>
<p>somehow, if you tolerate simplified chinese approach:</p>
<p><a href="http://xh.5156edu.com/page/z9686m3559j18640.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://xh.5156edu.com/page/z9686m3559j18640.html</a></p>
<p>or, the right “division” of this page:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.guoxuedashi.net/zidian/bujian/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.guoxuedashi.net/zidian/bujian/</a></p>
<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-03T16:55:48.740Z
Pretty useful for me to look up any character that I'm looking for that uses a specific semantic and phonetic component. Thanks for the sources!!
prismcool
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-03T15:49:13.193Z
2024-02-03T15:49:13.193Z
水巷孑蠻
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/AKBWb.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/AKBWb.png" alt="characters sharing the same Old Chinese phonetic element AI, AN ... BA, page 1 of 95" /></a></p>
<p>{List of Chinese characters in Pinyin sequence sharing the same phonetic element AI, AN ... BA, page 1 of 95}</p>
<p>The 韻典網 Yùndiǎnwǎng / Yunndeanwoang website has a multi-page list of phonetics 聲符表 shēngfú biǎo / shengfwu beau, a digitized version of 上古音系Shànggǔ Yīnxì / Shanqguu Inshih “Old Chinese Phonology”, by 鄭張尚芳Zhèngzhāng Shàngfāng / Jenqjang Shanqfang [BTW, my name is on p. 583].</p>
<p><a href="https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/</a></p>
<p>If you have advanced Chinese skills, you might find it useful. Printed version should still be available.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/I8ecg.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/I8ecg.png" alt="Evolution of 巴, which started out as a picture of a giant snake" /></a></p>
<p>The modern shapes of 巴 and 色 are misleading. 巴 was originally a pictogram of a giant snake: 巴蛇吞象，三歲而出其骨 &quot;The BA snake swallowed an elephant and spit out the bones three years later&quot; (some versions say 食 &quot;eat&quot; instead of 吞 &quot;swallow).</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Gcp3d.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Gcp3d.png" alt="evolution of the character 色 seh &quot;appearance&quot; " /></a></p>
<p>色 originally represented person #1 standing above person #2, who is kneeling while receiving a reprimand. 色 meant &quot;angry appearance&quot;. After Clerical script was introduced, the lower portion of 色 became 巴, this leading to the mistaken idea that these two are somehow related.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T09:13:30.750Z
Just some corrections: 巴 is actually a depiction of a person kneeling with their hands emphasized grabbing something, in which case is the original form of 把; You almost got the depiction and original meaning of 色, but actually 色 comes from upside down 印, which depicts a hand (the two strokes above is the hand, originally 爪) pressing down on a person (originally 卩, now written 巴) to indicate the original meaning "facial expression (on a person)".
prismcool
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T13:58:02.590Z
隸變 made the bottom of 色 resemble 巴, but they are not related. Otherwise, why does 説文 say 巴蟲也。或曰食象蛇。象形。凡巴之屬皆从巴。The 山海經 says sth similar. https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?educode=a01157
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T17:36:48.613Z
I guess it's because it's what Xu Shen thought 巴 depicted at the time based on the seal script before the discovery of oracle bone at the time. Just a reminder, when Xu Shen was writing the Shuowen Jiezi, this was at a time where the discovery of oracle bone and bronze glyphs were not discovered so the only ancient forms Xu Shen had access to analyze was the seal script characters.
prismcool
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-16T13:44:17.977Z
2024-02-19T13:39:11.730Z
2024-02-19T13:39:11.730Z
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
<p>referring to the other two answers, somethings that i want to say:</p>
<h2>“phonetic components” is **unreliable**, there’re many exceptions</h2>
<p>one of the answer shown “巴” ba1 as a phonetic components (聲符), and listed characters with such components</p>
<p>it’s misleading, imo; considering such list missed:</p>
<h2>肥 fei4</h2>
<h2>巵 ji1</h2>
<h2>色 sik1</h2>
<p>edited, one more:</p>
<h2>邑 yap1</h2>
<p>when both “吧” &amp; “邑” are composed by “口” &amp; “巴”; how to explain “巴” as phonetic component, with different “sound” in this case?</p>
<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:29:13.597Z
肥 functions as its own phonetic and is listed separately: 蜰 肥 淝 蜰 萉: https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E8%82%A5/
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:35:39.413Z
色 is phonetically unrelated to 巴, so it appears in another much smaller section, where it functions as the phonetic for only one other character: 色 赩 https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E8%89%B2/
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:36:32.987Z
@RobertMATTHEWS馬學進 sahib, “肥 functions as its own phonetic”, what about the other two, same as “肥”? or, “巴” as a component, **can’t** be generalised into a phonetic component?
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:36:40.717Z
The same goes for 巵, which also functions as phonetic for one single character: 巵 梔 https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E5%B7%B5/
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:38:31.293Z
@RobertMATTHEWS馬學進, i see, then we’ve different view about how to decompose a character into components 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T09:52:41.920Z
The question was about PHONETIC components, not graphically similar components.  巴 belongs to the 舒聲 category (does NOT end in a stop consonant), but 色 belongs to the 入聲 rùshēng / ruhsheng category (entering tones end in stop consonants: PTK). This is one of the most basic distinctions in Chinese historical phonology. A moment's glance should make one suspicious. 巴 CANNOT function as a phonetic in 色: the initials and finals are completely incompatible.
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T10:05:42.507Z
巵 {tje) and 巴 {praː} are absolutely  incompatible: the initials and finals don't line up at all. The reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation of 巴 {praː} and 肥 {pɯlʔ, bɯl, bɯls} have similar initials, so there MIGHT be some distant relationship, but from a pedagogical POV, I would discuss them separately.
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T08:39:01.327Z
You are being misled by the modern shapes of 巴 and 色, which did not originally resemble each other. 巴 was originally a pictogram of a giant snake: 把蛇吞象，三歲而出其骨 "The BA snake swallowed an elephant and spit out the bones three years later" (some versions say 食 "eat" instead of 吞 "swallow).
Robert MATTHEWS 馬學進
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T08:58:13.623Z
@RobertMATTHEWS馬學進, great, you find the origin  that , in **regular script (楷書)** the component “巴” might be sounds “a 呀” in some characters, to avoid misleading, one should state clearly that it might have other “sounds” as component  in other character
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T07:40:55.317Z
2024-02-17T12:50:30.170Z
2024-02-17T12:50:30.170Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>First of all, please remember, and meanwhile tolerate, that the answers to your question will have exceptions, maybe many exceptions. Therefore, some &quot;rules&quot; may help the students to learn Chinese characters, or adversely <strong>MISLEAD</strong> them to mistakes.</p>
<p>Your question on the components <strong>偏旁</strong> that constructed the Chinese characters <strong>汉字</strong> can be rooted in <strong>六书</strong> (The six principles of constructing Chinese characters): 象形 (pictograph), 指事 (direct indication), 会意 (compound ideograph), 形声 (phono-semantic compound), 假借 (loan word), and 转注 (derivative cognate).</p>
<p>Most of the characters related to your question would belong to <strong>会意</strong> (compound ideograph) and <strong>形声</strong> (phono-semantic compound).</p>
<p>The so-called component <strong>偏旁</strong> is from the concept that a Chinese character <strong>汉字</strong> can be taken apart into its constituent pieces and each of the pieces is a component <strong>偏旁</strong>. You can separate a Chinese character <strong>汉字</strong> into two, three, or even more parts employing left-to-right <strong>左右结构</strong>, upper-to-lower <strong>上下结构</strong>, or inside-to-outside <strong>内外结构</strong>. Please note that each component <strong>偏旁</strong> may be or <strong>NOT</strong> be another character <strong>汉字</strong>, may have or <strong>NOT</strong> have a meaning of something (neither semantic nor phonetic, 既不表意 也不表声).</p>
<p>People take advantage of the concept of component <strong>偏旁</strong> to assemble a dictionary or various lists in textbooks. Those components <strong>偏旁</strong> used in the dictionaries are called indexing components <strong>部首</strong>. Most of the indexing components <strong>部首</strong> are a semantic component.</p>
<p>For the translation to English, I would use the word &quot;component&quot; for &quot;<strong>偏旁</strong>&quot; and the word &quot;radical&quot; for &quot;<strong>部首</strong>&quot;. A &quot;component&quot; can be any part of a Chinese character. A &quot;radical&quot; is especially an index used in a dictionary to find a Chinese character. Different dictionaries can have different lists of &quot;radicals&quot;, depending on the authors of the dictionary.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p>草 (cao3) has the semantic component &quot;grass radical&quot; on the top and the phonetic component of &quot;ao&quot; in 早 (zao3).</p>
<p>桃 (tao2) has the semantic component &quot;wood radical&quot; on the left and the phonetic component of &quot;ao&quot; in 兆 (zhao4).</p>
<p>跳 (tiao4) has the semantic component &quot;foot radical&quot; on the left and the phonetic component of &quot;ao&quot; in 兆 (zhao4). (<strong>not including the consonant and the glide</strong>).</p>
<p><strong>The phonetic component usually includes only the rime part, not the onset part, of the syllable of the root character.</strong></p>
<p>Another case using &quot;radical&quot; is 会意 (compound ideograph). For example:</p>
<p>泪 (lei4) has the semantic component &quot;water radical&quot; on the left and the ideograph component of &quot;eye&quot; 眼睛 (目).</p>
<p><strong>As said before, there are many exceptions.</strong></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T21:40:36.990Z
2024-02-19T15:42:54.727Z
2024-02-19T15:42:54.727Z
PdotWang
<p>The <a href="https://github.com/skishore/makemeahanzi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Make me a Hanzi</a> database file <code>dictionary.txt</code> contains character decomposition data.  For examples, it has lines like</p>
<pre><code>{&quot;character&quot;:&quot;汽&quot;,&quot;definition&quot;:&quot;gasoline; steam, vapor&quot;,&quot;pinyin&quot;:[&quot;qì&quot;],&quot;decomposition&quot;:&quot;⿰氵气&quot;,&quot;etymology&quot;:{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;ideographic&quot;,&quot;hint&quot;:&quot;Liquid 氵 gas 气; 气 also provides the pronunciation&quot;},&quot;radical&quot;:&quot;氵&quot;,&quot;matches&quot;:[[0],[0],[0],[1],[1],[1],[1]]}
</code></pre>
<p>So 汽 decomposes into ⿰氵气.</p>
<p><a href="https://chat.openai.com/share/d848fc1b-365c-4a9a-b93b-6c530d37a4b5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ChatGPT</a> helped me write an awk command which gives me the characters and decompositions for characters containing 气.</p>
<pre><code>grep &quot;气&quot; dictionary.txt | awk -F'&quot;' '{print &quot;Character: &quot; $4, &quot;Decomposition: &quot; $16}'
</code></pre>
<p>which outputs:</p>
<pre><code>Character: 忾 Decomposition: ⿰忄气
Character: 气 Decomposition: ⿱亻？
Character: 氕 Decomposition: ⿹气丿
Character: 氖 Decomposition: ⿹气乃
Character: 氘 Decomposition: ⿹气刂
Character: 氙 Decomposition: ⿹气山
Character: 氚 Decomposition: ⿹气川
Character: 氛 Decomposition: ⿹气分
Character: 氜 Decomposition: ⿹气日
Character: 氟 Decomposition: ⿹气弗
Character: 氡 Decomposition: ⿹气冬
Character: 氢 Decomposition: ⿹气⿱又工
Character: 氣 Decomposition: ⿹气米
Character: 氤 Decomposition: ⿹气因
Character: 氦 Decomposition: ⿹气亥
Character: 氧 Decomposition: ⿹气羊
Character: 氨 Decomposition: ⿹气安
Character: 氩 Decomposition: ⿹气亚
Character: 氪 Decomposition: ⿹气克
Character: 氫 Decomposition: ⿹气巠
Character: 氮 Decomposition: ⿹气炎
Character: 氯 Decomposition: ⿹气录
Character: 氰 Decomposition: ⿹气青
Character: 氲 Decomposition: ⿹气昷
Character: 氳 Decomposition: ⿹气⿱囚皿
Character: 汽 Decomposition: ⿰氵气
Character: 饩 Decomposition: ⿰饣气
</code></pre>
<p><a href="https://www.dong-chinese.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dong-Chinese</a> uses this (and other) datasets in its <a href="https://www.dong-chinese.com/dictionary/search" rel="nofollow noreferrer">character dictionary</a>.  In particular, it lists characters with given semantic and phonetic components:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/vEyEC.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/vEyEC.png" alt="screenshot of Dong Chinese" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I also note that you can find characters containing certain components in Pleco, e.g.:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/MzMJam.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MzMJam.jpg" alt="screenshot of Pleco, listing characters that contain 气" /></a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T00:24:49.467Z
[I wrote a similar answer before](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/53222/8099), although there I didn't mention how to extract the characters with given components.
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T08:05:18.637Z
Oh yeah just to note btw, if you see a long list of characters in red that use the primary sound component as a "meaning component", it just probably means that the automated database from Make Me A Hanzi is being used in the entry and is not verified yet. Just thought I let you know and anyone else who looks up the roles of some components on Dong Chinese :)
prismcool
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T00:04:57.423Z
2024-02-17T00:12:13.987Z
2024-02-17T00:12:13.987Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>It is pretty much as the question said. I am pretty much aware of the facts that radicals are just dictionary headers so that the characters under the headers can not really have the exact forms as the headers represent and components can not really constitute any whatsoever functions to the present used characters because of the undergone evolution (including applied policies governed by areas using the characters) of glyph forms, meanings and sounds, except for guiding learners to make them easy to describe the characters in mind by associating those information of the components to the characters.</p>
<p>With all said above, is there any list of components that are reused multiple times in some characters that can at least, shed some commonality in its functions like readings (phonetics) or meanings (semantics)?</p>
<p>Either simplified or traditional form is fine to me.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-17T02:05:10.300Z
please note these lists will overlap, what is semantic in one character may be phonetic in another and vise versa.
zagrycha
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T14:19:20.647Z
The concept of the phonetic component means the rime only, not the whole syllable. It does not always have the same onset (consonant + glide) .
PdotWang
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-02-19T15:47:28.553Z
Most of the semantic components are listed in the Chinese dictionaries.
PdotWang
<character-components>
Are there lists of phonetic components and semantic components?
# Are there lists of phonetic components and semantic components?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-02-03)

It is pretty much as the question said. I am pretty much aware of the facts that radicals are just dictionary headers so that the characters under the headers can not really have the exact forms as the headers represent and components can not really constitute any whatsoever functions to the present used characters because of the undergone evolution (including applied policies governed by areas using the characters) of glyph forms, meanings and sounds, except for guiding learners to make them easy to describe the characters in mind by associating those information of the components to the characters.

With all said above, is there any list of components that are reused multiple times in some characters that can at least, shed some commonality in its functions like readings (phonetics) or meanings (semantics)?

Either simplified or traditional form is fine to me.

**Tags:** character-components

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: please note these lists will overlap, what is semantic in one character may be phonetic in another and vise versa.  
> **username_2**: The concept of the phonetic component means the rime only, not the whole syllable. It does not always have the same onset (consonant + glide) .  
> **username_2**: Most of the semantic components are listed in the Chinese dictionaries.  

---

## 5 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-02-03. Score: 3

for oracle bone script:

[漢語多功能字庫 甲骨部件表](https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/oraclePiece.php)

for bronze script:

[漢語多功能字庫 金文部件表](https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/bronzePiece.php)

for regular script (楷書) in traditional chinese, the ministry of digital affairs of taiwan , maintains the website 「CNS11643中文標準交換碼全字庫」(aka 全字庫), that, has this page, in the scrollable area:

[全字庫 部件查詢](https://www.cns11643.gov.tw/search.jsp?ID=13)

somehow, if you tolerate simplified chinese approach:

<http://xh.5156edu.com/page/z9686m3559j18640.html>

or, the right “division” of this page:

<https://www.guoxuedashi.net/zidian/bujian/>

have fun :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Pretty useful for me to look up any character that I'm looking for that uses a specific semantic and phonetic component. Thanks for the sources!!  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2024-02-16. Score: 2

[![characters sharing the same Old Chinese phonetic element AI, AN ... BA, page 1 of 95](https://i.sstatic.net/AKBWb.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/AKBWb.png)

{List of Chinese characters in Pinyin sequence sharing the same phonetic element AI, AN ... BA, page 1 of 95}

The 韻典網 Yùndiǎnwǎng / Yunndeanwoang website has a multi-page list of phonetics 聲符表 shēngfú biǎo / shengfwu beau, a digitized version of 上古音系Shànggǔ Yīnxì / Shanqguu Inshih “Old Chinese Phonology”, by 鄭張尚芳Zhèngzhāng Shàngfāng / Jenqjang Shanqfang [BTW, my name is on p. 583].

<https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/>

If you have advanced Chinese skills, you might find it useful. Printed version should still be available.

[![Evolution of 巴, which started out as a picture of a giant snake](https://i.sstatic.net/I8ecg.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/I8ecg.png)

The modern shapes of 巴 and 色 are misleading. 巴 was originally a pictogram of a giant snake: 巴蛇吞象，三歲而出其骨 "The BA snake swallowed an elephant and spit out the bones three years later" (some versions say 食 "eat" instead of 吞 "swallow).

[![evolution of the character 色 seh "appearance" ](https://i.sstatic.net/Gcp3d.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Gcp3d.png)

色 originally represented person #1 standing above person #2, who is kneeling while receiving a reprimand. 色 meant "angry appearance". After Clerical script was introduced, the lower portion of 色 became 巴, this leading to the mistaken idea that these two are somehow related.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: Just some corrections: 巴 is actually a depiction of a person kneeling with their hands emphasized grabbing something, in which case is the original form of 把; You almost got the depiction and original meaning of 色, but actually 色 comes from upside down 印, which depicts a hand (the two strokes above is the hand, originally 爪) pressing down on a person (originally 卩, now written 巴) to indicate the original meaning "facial expression (on a person)".  
> **username_5**: 隸變 made the bottom of 色 resemble 巴, but they are not related. Otherwise, why does 説文 say 巴蟲也。或曰食象蛇。象形。凡巴之屬皆从巴。The 山海經 says sth similar. https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/variants/rbt/word_attribute.rbt?educode=a01157  
> **username_4**: I guess it's because it's what Xu Shen thought 巴 depicted at the time based on the seal script before the discovery of oracle bone at the time. Just a reminder, when Xu Shen was writing the Shuowen Jiezi, this was at a time where the discovery of oracle bone and bronze glyphs were not discovered so the only ancient forms Xu Shen had access to analyze was the seal script characters.  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-02-17. Score: 0

referring to the other two answers, somethings that i want to say:

## “phonetic components” is \*\*unreliable\*\*, there’re many exceptions

one of the answer shown “巴” ba1 as a phonetic components (聲符), and listed characters with such components

it’s misleading, imo; considering such list missed:

## 肥 fei4

## 巵 ji1

## 色 sik1

edited, one more:

## 邑 yap1

when both “吧” & “邑” are composed by “口” & “巴”; how to explain “巴” as phonetic component, with different “sound” in this case?

have fun :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: 肥 functions as its own phonetic and is listed separately: 蜰 肥 淝 蜰 萉: https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E8%82%A5/  
> **username_5**: 色 is phonetically unrelated to 巴, so it appears in another much smaller section, where it functions as the phonetic for only one other character: 色 赩 https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E8%89%B2/  
> **username_3**: @username_5 sahib, “肥 functions as its own phonetic”, what about the other two, same as “肥”? or, “巴” as a component, **can’t** be generalised into a phonetic component?  
> **username_5**: The same goes for 巵, which also functions as phonetic for one single character: 巵 梔 https://ytenx.org/dciangx/cjeng/%E5%B7%B5/  
> **username_3**: @username_5, i see, then we’ve different view about how to decompose a character into components   
> **username_5**: The question was about PHONETIC components, not graphically similar components.  巴 belongs to the 舒聲 category (does NOT end in a stop consonant), but 色 belongs to the 入聲 rùshēng / ruhsheng category (entering tones end in stop consonants: PTK). This is one of the most basic distinctions in Chinese historical phonology. A moment's glance should make one suspicious. 巴 CANNOT function as a phonetic in 色: the initials and finals are completely incompatible.  
> **username_5**: 巵 {tje) and 巴 {praː} are absolutely  incompatible: the initials and finals don't line up at all. The reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation of 巴 {praː} and 肥 {pɯlʔ, bɯl, bɯls} have similar initials, so there MIGHT be some distant relationship, but from a pedagogical POV, I would discuss them separately.  
> **username_5**: You are being misled by the modern shapes of 巴 and 色, which did not originally resemble each other. 巴 was originally a pictogram of a giant snake: 把蛇吞象，三歲而出其骨 "The BA snake swallowed an elephant and spit out the bones three years later" (some versions say 食 "eat" instead of 吞 "swallow).  
> **username_3**: @username_5, great, you find the origin  that , in **regular script (楷書)** the component “巴” might be sounds “a 呀” in some characters, to avoid misleading, one should state clearly that it might have other “sounds” as component  in other character  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2024-02-17. Score: 0

First of all, please remember, and meanwhile tolerate, that the answers to your question will have exceptions, maybe many exceptions. Therefore, some "rules" may help the students to learn Chinese characters, or adversely **MISLEAD** them to mistakes.

Your question on the components **偏旁** that constructed the Chinese characters **汉字** can be rooted in **六书** (The six principles of constructing Chinese characters): 象形 (pictograph), 指事 (direct indication), 会意 (compound ideograph), 形声 (phono-semantic compound), 假借 (loan word), and 转注 (derivative cognate).

Most of the characters related to your question would belong to **会意** (compound ideograph) and **形声** (phono-semantic compound).

The so-called component **偏旁** is from the concept that a Chinese character **汉字** can be taken apart into its constituent pieces and each of the pieces is a component **偏旁**. You can separate a Chinese character **汉字** into two, three, or even more parts employing left-to-right **左右结构**, upper-to-lower **上下结构**, or inside-to-outside **内外结构**. Please note that each component **偏旁** may be or **NOT** be another character **汉字**, may have or **NOT** have a meaning of something (neither semantic nor phonetic, 既不表意 也不表声).

People take advantage of the concept of component **偏旁** to assemble a dictionary or various lists in textbooks. Those components **偏旁** used in the dictionaries are called indexing components **部首**. Most of the indexing components **部首** are a semantic component.

For the translation to English, I would use the word "component" for "**偏旁**" and the word "radical" for "**部首**". A "component" can be any part of a Chinese character. A "radical" is especially an index used in a dictionary to find a Chinese character. Different dictionaries can have different lists of "radicals", depending on the authors of the dictionary.

For example:

草 (cao3) has the semantic component "grass radical" on the top and the phonetic component of "ao" in 早 (zao3).

桃 (tao2) has the semantic component "wood radical" on the left and the phonetic component of "ao" in 兆 (zhao4).

跳 (tiao4) has the semantic component "foot radical" on the left and the phonetic component of "ao" in 兆 (zhao4). (**not including the consonant and the glide**).

**The phonetic component usually includes only the rime part, not the onset part, of the syllable of the root character.**

Another case using "radical" is 会意 (compound ideograph). For example:

泪 (lei4) has the semantic component "water radical" on the left and the ideograph component of "eye" 眼睛 (目).

**As said before, there are many exceptions.**


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### Answer by username_6 on 2024-02-17. Score: 0

The [Make me a Hanzi](https://github.com/skishore/makemeahanzi) database file `dictionary.txt` contains character decomposition data. For examples, it has lines like

```
{"character":"汽","definition":"gasoline; steam, vapor","pinyin":["qì"],"decomposition":"⿰氵气","etymology":{"type":"ideographic","hint":"Liquid 氵 gas 气; 气 also provides the pronunciation"},"radical":"氵","matches":[[0],[0],[0],[1],[1],[1],[1]]}

```

So 汽 decomposes into ⿰氵气.

[ChatGPT](https://chat.openai.com/share/d848fc1b-365c-4a9a-b93b-6c530d37a4b5) helped me write an awk command which gives me the characters and decompositions for characters containing 气.

```
grep "气" dictionary.txt | awk -F'"' '{print "Character: " $4, "Decomposition: " $16}'

```

which outputs:

```
Character: 忾 Decomposition: ⿰忄气
Character: 气 Decomposition: ⿱亻？
Character: 氕 Decomposition: ⿹气丿
Character: 氖 Decomposition: ⿹气乃
Character: 氘 Decomposition: ⿹气刂
Character: 氙 Decomposition: ⿹气山
Character: 氚 Decomposition: ⿹气川
Character: 氛 Decomposition: ⿹气分
Character: 氜 Decomposition: ⿹气日
Character: 氟 Decomposition: ⿹气弗
Character: 氡 Decomposition: ⿹气冬
Character: 氢 Decomposition: ⿹气⿱又工
Character: 氣 Decomposition: ⿹气米
Character: 氤 Decomposition: ⿹气因
Character: 氦 Decomposition: ⿹气亥
Character: 氧 Decomposition: ⿹气羊
Character: 氨 Decomposition: ⿹气安
Character: 氩 Decomposition: ⿹气亚
Character: 氪 Decomposition: ⿹气克
Character: 氫 Decomposition: ⿹气巠
Character: 氮 Decomposition: ⿹气炎
Character: 氯 Decomposition: ⿹气录
Character: 氰 Decomposition: ⿹气青
Character: 氲 Decomposition: ⿹气昷
Character: 氳 Decomposition: ⿹气⿱囚皿
Character: 汽 Decomposition: ⿰氵气
Character: 饩 Decomposition: ⿰饣气

```

[Dong-Chinese](https://www.dong-chinese.com/) uses this (and other) datasets in its [character dictionary](https://www.dong-chinese.com/dictionary/search). In particular, it lists characters with given semantic and phonetic components:

> [![screenshot of Dong Chinese](https://i.sstatic.net/vEyEC.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/vEyEC.png)

I also note that you can find characters containing certain components in Pleco, e.g.:

> [![screenshot of Pleco, listing characters that contain 气](https://i.sstatic.net/MzMJam.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/MzMJam.jpg)

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: [I wrote a similar answer before](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/a/53222/8099), although there I didn't mention how to extract the characters with given components.  
> **username_4**: Oh yeah just to note btw, if you see a long list of characters in red that use the primary sound component as a "meaning component", it just probably means that the automated database from Make Me A Hanzi is being used in the entry and is not verified yet. Just thought I let you know and anyone else who looks up the roles of some components on Dong Chinese :)  

---

