(): (bound form) a person in servitude, low-ranking subordinate, (bound form) to be subordinate to, (bound form) clerical script (the style of characters intermediate between ancient seal and modern regular characters)

() is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) a person in servitude.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1784 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a hand 彐 threshing rice. Its radical form (slave) appears in many related characters.

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) a person in servitude
  2. low-ranking subordinate
  3. (bound form) to be subordinate to
  4. (bound form) clerical script (the style of characters intermediate between ancient seal and modern regular characters)

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA hand 彐 threshing rice

Decomposition: ⿱彐氺 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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
nú lìslave
lì shǔto be subordinate to
nú lì zhìslavery
nú lì zhǔslave owner
nú lì zhì dùslavery
nú lì shè huìslave-owning society (precedes feudal society 封建社會|封建社会 in Marxist theory)
lì tǐsee 隸書|隶书
zhí lìZhili, a province from Ming times until 1928, roughly corresponding to present-day Hebei
gǎi lì(of an entity) to come under the administration of (a different authority)
lì shūclerical script
lì yǔservants
11
Total compounds
36
As first character
27
As last character
36
As middle character

appears in 11 compound words: 36 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 36 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.

0.71747,515 co-occurrences
shǔ
0.717154,422 co-occurrences
0.51691,212 co-occurrences
zhí
0.48936,114 co-occurrences
fàn
0.429924 co-occurrences
mào
0.4122,418 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.41112,426 co-occurrences
xiāng
0.405636 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.38815,498 co-occurrences
zhuǎn
0.3885,808 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字由8笔画组成,结构很巧妙。

lì zì yóu bǐ huà zǔ chéng , jié gòu hěn qiǎo miào .

The character "隶" consists of eight strokes and features a remarkably ingenious structure.

奇客SolidotAug 2026

美国历史上的奴制可预测今天的黑人白人死亡率差异

měi guó lì shǐ shàng de nú lì zhì kě yù cè jīn tiān de hēi rén bái rén sǐ wáng lǜ chā yì

Slavery in U.S. history can predict the disparity in mortality rates between Black and White people today

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

此后数百年间,这里成为跨大西洋奴贸易的转运枢纽,不同大陆的血脉与文化在此交汇融合。

cǐ hòu shǔ bǎi nián jiān , zhè lǐ chéng wéi kuà dà xī yáng nú lì mào yì de zhuǎn yùn shū niǔ , bù tóng dà lù de xiě mài yǔ wén huà zài cǐ jiāo huì róng gě .

Over the following centuries, this place became a major transshipment hub for the transatlantic slave trade, where the bloodlines and cultures of different continents converged and intermingled.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

在袁世凯担任“大总统”时,张镇芳担任署理直总督等职务,成为袁世凯的得力助手。

zài yuán shì kǎi dān rèn dà zǒng tǒng shí , zhāng zhèn fāng dān rèn shǔ lǐ zhí lì zǒng dū děng zhí wù , chéng wéi yuán shì kǎi de dé lì zhù shǒu .

During Yuan Shikai’s tenure as “President,” Zhang Zhenfang served as Acting Governor-General of Zhili and held other positions, becoming one of Yuan Shikai’s most trusted aides.

IT之家May 2026

北弗吉尼亚州属于 PJM 电网供电范围,该地区遍布各类大型数据中心。

běi fú jí ní yà zhōu lì shǔ yú P J M diàn wǎng gōng diàn fàn wéi , gāi dì qū biàn bù gè lèi dà xíng shǔ jù zhōng xīn .

Northern Virginia is part of the PJM power grid, and the region is home to a wide variety of large data centers.

中国新闻网·文化Apr 2026

纸的右下角勾云纹栏内有朱文书“梅花玉版笺”长方印记。

zhǐ de yòu xià jiǎo gōu yún wén lán nèi yǒu zhū wén lì shū méi huā yù bǎn 笺 cháng fāng yìn jì .

In the cloud-patterned border at the lower right corner of the paper is a rectangular seal bearing the inscription “Plum Blossom Jade-Plate Stationery” in vermilion clerical script.

Tatoeba

林肯反对奴制度。

Línkěn fǎnduì núlìzhìdù.

Lincoln was opposed to slavery.

Tatoeba

美国废除了奴制度。

Měiguó fèichú le núlì zhìdù.

America did away with slavery.

Tatoeba

属哪家俱乐部吗?

Nín lìshǔ nǎ jiājù lè bù ma?

Do you belong to any clubs?

Tatoeba

这个人是您的奴,是吧?

Zhège rén shì nín de núlì, shì ba?

This person is your slave, right?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 隶 (lì) mean in Chinese?
隶 (lì) primarily means "(bound form) a person in servitude." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1784 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 隶 have?
隶 is written with 8 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 隶?
The radical associated with 隶 is 隶 (slave). This radical appears in many characters related to slave.
What are the components of 隶?
隶 is composed of: 彐 (structural), 氺 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱彐氺 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 隶?
Common words with 隶 include: 奴隶 (nú lì, "slave"); 隶属 (lì shǔ, "to be subordinate to"); 奴隶制 (nú lì zhì, "slavery"); 奴隶主 (nú lì zhǔ, "slave owner"); 奴隶制度 (nú lì zhì dù, "slavery"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 隶 (lì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation lì: 里 (lining), 理 (texture), 力 (power), 利 (sharp), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 隶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 隶 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.