颈
Character Story & Explanation
颈 appears frequently in formal Chinese contexts: medical terms (e.g., 颈椎 jǐngzhuī, 'cervical vertebra'), official documents, and classical idioms. One well-documented phrase is 刎颈之交 (wěn jǐng zhī jiāo), recorded since the Han dynasty in Sima Qian’s *Records of the Grand Historian*, describing two friends so loyal they’d cut their necks together. Today, it’s still used in essays and speeches to evoke deep loyalty.
The character’s form evolved from seal script, where 页 depicted a person’s head with hair, and 巠 was added later for sound. No oracle-bone form survives, but by the Warring States period, it consistently meant 'neck' in bamboo-slip texts. Modern usage favors compounds — you’ll rarely see 颈 alone outside dictionaries or labels.
Hi students! Let’s learn 颈 (jǐng), meaning 'neck'. It’s an HSK Level 6 character — not super common in daily speech, but essential for formal writing, medicine, and literature. Pronounced with the third tone (jǐng), it’s often used in compound words rather than alone. Notice its radical is 页 (yè), meaning 'page' or 'leaf', which originally represented the head/face area in ancient script — a clue that this character relates to the upper body.
The left part, 巠 (jīng), looks like a simplified version of 'well' or 'channel' and serves mainly as a phonetic component (hinting at pronunciation). Don’t confuse it with 氵(water radical) — there’s no water here! This character appears mostly in technical or literary contexts, never in casual phrases like 'my neck hurts' (where people say 脖子 instead).
Remember: 颈 is formal and precise — think anatomy textbooks, classical poetry, or legal documents. In contrast, 脖子 (bózi) is the everyday word for 'neck' you’ll hear in conversation. Mastering 颈 helps you read newspapers, medical reports, and idioms like '刎颈之交' — a profound friendship worth dying for! It’s a small character with big cultural weight.
Example Sentences
Common Compounds
Similar Characters — Don't Mix These Up
Your First Step into Chinese Culture: Get a Chinese Name
Every journey into Chinese begins with a name. Use our free Chinese name generator to create a meaningful, personalized Chinese name that fits you perfectly.
Get My Chinese Name →