What does 昨 mean in Chinese?

昨 is a Chinese character with the radical 日.

How do you write 昨?

昨 is written with 9 strokes, starting from the 日 (sun) radical and following standard Chinese stroke order (top to bottom, left to right). See the interactive stroke-order tool for the full animation.

What is the radical of 昨?

The radical of 昨 is 日 (sun, Kangxi radical #72). Other common HSK characters using the same radical include 时, 明, 日, 是.

How many strokes does 昨 have?

The Chinese character 昨 has 9 strokes.

What HSK level is 昨?

On the new HSK exam syllabus, 昨 is a character to recognise at HSK 1.

昨: Chinese Character Details

昨

HSK 1 character 9 strokes Radical: 日 (sun)

Quick Answer

昨 is a Chinese character with 9 strokes, radical 日 (sun), HSK 1 on the new exam.

Full dictionary entry for 昨 →Animated stroke-order for 昨 →

Etymology

Oracle-bone origin

昨 does not appear in oracle bone script in its modern sense and is a relatively late phono-semantic compound. It combines 日 (sun, indicating a day or time) as the semantic component with 乍 as the phonetic component. 乍 in its own ancient form depicted a sudden cut or beginning action.

Form evolution

The character stabilised by the small seal script stage with the two components already in their current arrangement: 日 on the left, 乍 on the right. Clerical script straightened the curved seal strokes and fixed the modern proportions. The 楷 form has not shifted meaningfully from the clerical.

How the meaning evolved

In classical texts 昨 could mean any past day or a short time ago, not strictly yesterday. The narrowing to specifically the day before today hardened during the medieval period. Modern usage in 昨天 and 昨日 carries only the tight meaning of yesterday.

Cultural note

The Tao Yuanming line 覺今是而昨非 (I see that today is right and yesterday was wrong) uses 昨 in the broader classical sense of a former time, not literally yesterday. Learners who translate 昨 as only yesterday will miss this register in older writing.