Kangxi radical
| Kangxi Radicals | |
|---|---|
| Range | U+2F00..U+2FDF (224 code points) |
| Plane | BMP |
| Scripts | Han |
| Symbol sets | CJK Radical |
| Assigned | 214 code points |
| Unused | 10 reserved code points |
| Source standards | CNS 11643-1992 |
| Unicode version history | |
| 3.0 | 214 (+214) |
| Note: | |
The 214 Kangxi radicals (康熙部首) form a system of radicals () of Chinese characters. The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the de facto standard used as the basis for most modern Chinese dictionaries, such that reference to "radical 61", for example, without additional context, refers to the 61st radical of the Kangxi Dictionary, ; xīn "heart".
Originally introduced in the 1615 Zihui, they are named in relation to the Kangxi Dictionary of 1716 (Kāngxī being the era name for 1662–1723). The system of 214 Kangxi radicals is based on the older system of 540 radicals used in the Han-era Shuowen Jiezi.
The Kangxi dictionary lists a total of 47,035 characters divided among the 214 radicals, for an average of 220 characters per radical, but distribution is unequal, the median number of characters per radical being 64, with a maximum number of 1,902 characters (for radical 140 ) and a minimum number of five (radical 138 ). The radicals have between one and seventeen strokes, the median number of strokes being 5 while the average number of strokes is slightly below 5.7.
The ten radicals with the largest number of characters account for 10,665 characters (or 23% of the dictionary). The same ten radicals account for 7,141 out of 20,992 characters (34%) in the Unicode CJK Unified Ideographs block as introduced in 1992, as follows:
Modern Chinese dictionaries continue to use the Kangxi radical-stroke order, both in traditional zidian (, lit. "character/logograph dictionary") for written Chinese characters and modern cidian ( "word/phrase dictionary") for spoken expressions. The 214 Kangxi radicals act as a de facto standard, which may not be duplicated exactly in every Chinese dictionary, but which few dictionary compilers can afford to completely ignore. They also serve as the basis for many computer encoding systems, including Unihan. The number of radicals may be reduced in modern practical dictionaries, as some of the more obscure Kangxi radicals do not form any characters that remain in frequent use. Thus, the Oxford Concise English–Chinese Dictionary (), for example, has 188 radicals. The Xinhua Zidian, a pocket-sized character dictionary containing about 13,000 characters, uses 189 radicals. A few dictionaries also introduce new radicals, treating groups of radicals that are used together in many different characters as a kind of radical. For example, Hanyu Da Cidian, the most inclusive available Chinese dictionary (published in 1993) has 23,000 head character entries organised by a novel system of 200 radicals.
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