系 (xì) means "department" with 7 strokes, radical 糸 (silk), HSK 1 on the new exam.
Pronunciation
Meaning
Primary: department
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
The oracle-bone form of 系 shows a hand (爪) above one or more strands of silk (糸), depicting the act of tying or connecting threads. Bronze inscriptions make the hand component clearer and sometimes add extra silk strands. It is an ideographic compound whose original image, a hand binding silk, directly encodes the meaning of linking or attaching.
Form evolution
In small seal script the hand is reduced to a short curved stroke at the top, and 糸 is drawn with its full six strokes including the three dots at the base. Clerical script simplified the top element to the single downward stroke seen today and regularised 糸 into the familiar seven-stroke radical. The simplified form 系 used in the mainland merges what were historically three related characters: 系 (connect), 係 (relate to, be), and 繫 (tie, fasten), all now written 系.
How the meaning evolved
The earliest sense was to tie or bind, preserved in 系鞋带 (tie shoelaces) and 系安全带 (fasten seatbelt). From binding it extended to connection and lineage (系统 system, 关系 relationship, 世系 ancestral line), and then to academic department (中文系 Chinese department), a Republican-era coinage. Because of the post-1956 merger with 係, it also carries the formal copula sense to be, common in written and legal Chinese (此人系本校学生).
Cultural note
系 is pronounced differently depending on sense: xì for connection, department, and the formal to be, but jì for the act of tying (系鞋带). Many native speakers now use xì for both, but educated speech and dictionaries still mark the distinction. The traditional writing system kept 系, 係, and 繫 visually separate, and readers of pre-1956 texts or Taiwan and Hong Kong material will still encounter all three.
Mnemonic
Silk threads connecting — a system, to tie
Basic info
| Pinyin | xì |
| Meanings | department |
| Stroke count | 7 strokes |
| Radical | 糸 (#120: silk) |
| New HSK exam | Recognise at HSK 1 |
| Frequency | #399 most common |
Example sentences
Words containing 系
Related characters
Similar meaning (abstract)
On the new HSK 1 exam
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Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.