(jié): to rob, to plunder, to seize by force

(jié) is a Chinese character meaning “to rob.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1808 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, strength. Its radical form (power) appears in many related characters such as (dòng, (of sth) to move), (, power), (bàn, to take care of (a matter)).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to rob
  2. to plunder
  3. to seize by force

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticstrength

Decomposition: ⿰去力 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
qiǎng jiéto rob
jié chíto kidnap
jié fěibandit
dǎ jiéto loot
xǐ jiéto loot
jié jīhijacking
hào jiécalamity
xǐ jié yī kōngto steal everything
wàn jié bù fùconsigned to eternal damnation
jié lüèto loot
jié nàncalamity
chèn huǒ dǎ jiélit. to loot a burning house (idiom)
jié shùpredestined fate (Buddhism)
jié fù jì pín(idiom) to rob the rich to help the poor
jié yùto break into jail
39
Total compounds
56
As first character
28
As last character
15
As middle character

appears in 39 compound words: 56 as the first character, 28 as the last, and 15 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

qiǎng
0.69518,614 co-occurrences
jīn
0.68710 co-occurrences
lüè
0.66316,380 co-occurrences
0.63710 co-occurrences
0.63611 co-occurrences
fěi
0.6209,528 co-occurrences
0.57712,770 co-occurrences
0.49810 co-occurrences
hào
0.4765,730 co-occurrences
shì
0.47611 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

chènhuǒdǎjiéHSK 7+

to take advantage of chaos for one's own profit

phrase
chénghuǒdǎjiéHSK 7+

to take advantage of another person's misfortune for personal gain

phrase
dǎjiājiéshèHSK 7+

to loot; to plunder

phrase
jiéfùjìpínHSK 7+

to rob the rich to aid the poor

phrase
jiéhòuyúshēngHSK 7+

to survive a disaster; to outlive a calamity

phrase
wànjiébùfùHSK 7+

to be doomed eternally; to be beyond redemption; to be never able to recover

phrase
xǐjiéyīkōngHSK 7+

to completely loot and leave nothing behind

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

jié zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character for "robbery" has a very distinctive writing style that left a deep impression on me.

BastillepostFeb 2026

云南金铺遭蒙面贼洗损逾3公斤黄金 警方10小时破案助全数追...

yún nán jīn pù zāo méng miàn zéi xǐ jié sǔn yú 3 gōng jīn huáng jīn jǐng fāng 1 0 xiǎo shí pò àn zhù quán shǔ zhuī . . .

Yunnan gold shop was looted by masked thieves and lost more than 3 kilograms of gold, and the police solved the case in 10 hours to help chase all the gold...

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

纽约曼哈顿最古老教堂 圣保罗礼拜堂历不摇

niǔ yuē 曼 hā dùn zuì gǔ lǎo jiào táng shèng bǎo luó lǐ bài táng lì jié bù yáo

St. Paul's Chapel, the oldest church in Manhattan, New York, has not been shaken by the disaster

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

趁火打 拖吊2公里要4万?北市严查

chèn huǒ dǎ jié tuō diào 2 gōng lǐ yāo 4 wàn ? běi shì yán chá

Robbery while the fire is in trouble and towing 2 kilometers costs 40,000 yuan? Strict investigation in Beijing City

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

拖吊10公里要10万!蒋万安怒轰“趁火打” 指示局处严查恶霸行为

tuō diào 1 0 gōng lǐ yāo 1 0 wàn ! 蒋 wàn ān nù hōng chèn huǒ dǎ jié zhǐ shì jú chǔ yán chá è bà háng wéi

Towing 10 kilometers costs 100,000 yuan! Jiang Wan'an angrily bombarded the bureau to "rob while the fire is in the fire" and instructed the bureau to strictly investigate the behavior of bullies

Tatoeba

把手举起来!这是抢

Bǎ shǒu jǔqǐ lái! Zhè shì qiǎngjié.

Hands up! This is a robbery.

Tatoeba

银行的后果就是在监狱里蹲十年。

Qiǎngjié yínháng de hòuguǒ jiùshì zài jiānyù lǐ dūn shí nián.

Bank robbery will cost you ten years in prison.

Tatoeba

这家银行一周前被抢

Zhè jiā yínháng yī zhōu qián bèi qiǎngjié.

The bank was held up a week ago.

Tatoeba

税收就是合法的抢

Shuìshōu jiùshì héfǎ de qiǎngjié.

Taxes are just legal robbery.

Tatoeba

好险啊,还好侥幸逃过一

Hǎoxiǎn ā, háihǎo jiǎoxìng táo guo yī jié.

That was so dangerous! Fortunately, I narrowly escaped a disaster.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 劫 (jié) mean in Chinese?
劫 (jié) primarily means "to rob." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1808 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 劫 and 却?
劫 (jié) and 却 (què) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 力 vs 卩 (same 去 component).
How many strokes does 劫 have?
劫 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 劫?
The radical associated with 劫 is 力 (power). This radical appears in many characters related to power.
What are the components of 劫?
劫 is composed of: 去 (phonetic), 力 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰去力 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 劫?
Common words with 劫 include: 抢劫 (qiǎng jié, "to rob"); 劫持 (jié chí, "to kidnap"); 劫匪 (jié fěi, "bandit"); 打劫 (dǎ jié, "to loot"); 洗劫 (xǐ jié, "to loot"). There are over 39 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 劫 (jié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jié: 阶 (rank or step), 接 (to receive, to connect), 街 (street), 节 (festival, section), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 劫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 劫 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.