北 (běi) means "north" with HSK 3 on the new exam.
Pronunciation
Meaning
Primary: north
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
In oracle-bone script 北 shows two human figures standing back to back. The original meaning was therefore back or to turn one's back on, not the compass direction. The pictograph is strikingly clear: two 人 figures mirrored, one facing left and one facing right, their spines together.
Form evolution
Bronze and seal forms preserve the two back-to-back figures with little change. In clerical script the two figures were squared off and regularised, producing the modern shape in which the left component looks like a truncated 人 and the right like a reversed one. The pictorial origin is still legible to anyone told what to look for.
How the meaning evolved
The back-to-back image was extended to the cardinal direction north because people traditionally faced south when orienting themselves, leaving their backs to the north. Once 北 was borrowed for north, the original sense of back was written with the new character 背, which adds the flesh radical 月 to 北. 北 also retained a verbal sense of to be defeated (to turn one's back and flee), seen in classical 败北.
Cultural note
The compound 背 (back of the body) is literally 北 + 月 (flesh), a transparent record of how the meaning split: 北 kept the direction, 背 inherited the anatomy. This is one of the cleanest examples in the writing system of a borrowed character forcing the creation of a replacement for the original sense.
Basic info
Example sentences
Words containing 北
On the new HSK 3 exam
Studying for HSK 3? Keep 北 with the rest of your level.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.