彝 (yí): Yi ethnic group, (archaic) wine vessel, (archaic) sacrificial vessel

彝 (yí) is a Chinese character meaning “yi ethnic group.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 彑 (structural), 米 (structural), 糸 (structural) and 廾 (structural). It ranks #5347 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. Yi ethnic group
  2. (archaic) wine vessel
  3. (archaic) sacrificial vessel

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
红河哈尼族彝族自治州hóng hé hā ní zú yí zú zì zhì zhōuHonghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province 雲南省|云南省
马边彝族自治县mǎ biān yí zú zì zhì xiànMabian Yi Autonomous County, in Leshan City 樂山市|乐山市, Sichuan
江城哈尼族彝族自治县jiāng chéng hā ní zú yí zú zì zhì xiànJiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan
路南彝族自治县lù nán yí zú zì zhì xiànLunan Yizu Autonomous County in Yunnan
景东彝族自治县jǐng dōng yí zú zì zhì xiànJingdong Yi Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan
石林彝族自治县shí lín yí zú zì zhì xiànShilin Yi Autonomous County, in Kunming City 昆明市, Yunnan
新平彝族傣族自治县xīn píng yí zú dǎi zú zì zhì xiànXinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County, in Yuxi City 玉溪市, Yunnan
巍山彝族回族自治县wēi shān yí zú huí zú zì zhì xiànWeishan Yi and Hui Autonomous County, in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture 大理白族自治州, Yunnan
元江哈尼族彝族傣族自治县yuán jiāng hā ní zú yí zú dǎi zú zì zhì xiànYuanjiang Hani, Yi and Dai Autonomous County, in Yuxi City 玉溪市, Yunnan
威宁彝族回族苗族自治县wēi níng yí zú huí zú miáo zú zì zhì xiànWeining Yi, Hui, and Miao Autonomous County, in Bijie City 畢節市|毕节市, Guizhou
楚雄彝族自治州proper-nounchǔ xióng yí zú zì zhì zhōuChuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province 雲南省|云南省
凉山彝族自治州proper-nounliáng shān yí zú zì zhì zhōuLiangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan Province 四川省
镇沅彝族哈尼族拉祜族自治县zhèn yuán yí zú hā ní zú lā hù zú zì zhì xiànZhenyuan Yi, Hani and Lahu Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan
宁洱哈尼族彝族自治县níng ěr hā ní zú yí zú zì zhì xiànNing'er Hani and Yi Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan
寻甸回族彝族自治县xún diàn huí zú yí zú zì zhì xiànXundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, in Kunming City 昆明市, Yunnan
28
Total compounds
21
As first character
0
As last character
79
As middle character

彝 appears in 28 compound words: 21 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 79 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

其演职人员涵盖汉族、藏族、哈萨克族、回族、赫哲族、彝族、满族等多个民族。

qí yǎn zhí rén yuán hán gài hàn zú , zàng zú , hā sà kè zú , huí zú , hè zhé zú , yí zú , mǎn zú děng duō gè mín zú .

Its cast and crew include members of many ethnic groups, including the Han, Tibetan, Kazakh, Hui, Hezhe, Yi, and Manchu.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

云南省楚雄彝族自治州火把节8月6日启幕,年轻人都穿上了早已备好的“战袍”。

yún nán shěng chǔ xióng yí zú zì zhì zhōu huǒ bǎ jié 8 yuè 6 rì qǐ mù , nián qīng rén dōu chuān shàng le zǎo yǐ bèi hǎo de zhàn páo .

The Torch Festival in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, kicked off on August 6, with young people donning the “battle attire” they had prepared well in advance.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

两岸彝绣创意作品亮相云南南华 针线连心共绣未来

liǎng àn yí xiù chuàng yì zuò pǐn liàng xiāng yún nán nán huá zhēn xiàn lián xīn gòng xiù wèi lái

Creative Yi Embroidery Works from Both Sides of the Strait Debut in Nanhua, Yunnan: Stitches That Connect Hearts, Embroidering a Shared Future

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

目前,古彝文、水书、满文、回鹘文等多民族文字古籍的智能分析研究均在稳步推进。

mù qián , gǔ yí wén , shuǐ shū , mǎn wén , huí 鹘 wén děng duō mín zú wén zì gǔ jí de zhì néng fēn xī yán jiū jūn zài wěn bù tuī jìn .

Currently, research on the intelligent analysis of ancient texts written in various ethnic scripts—including ancient Yi script, Shui script, Manchu script, and Uyghur script—is progressing steadily.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

交响组曲《阿诗玛》首次亮相西藏文化艺术节 多民族艺术家联袂演绎彝族经典

jiāo xiǎng zǔ qū ā shī mǎ shǒu cì liàng xiāng xī zàng wén huà yì shù jié duō mín zú yì shù jiā lián 袂 yǎn yì yí zú jīng diǎn

The symphonic suite "Ashima" made its debut at the Tibet Culture and Arts Festival, with artists from various ethnic groups joining forces to perform this Yi classic.

Character Family

彐 Radical Family — Characters sharing the snout radical

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 彝 (yí) mean in Chinese?
彝 (yí) primarily means "yi ethnic group." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #5347 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 彝 have?
彝 is written with 18 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 彝?
The radical associated with 彝 is 彐 (snout). This radical appears in many characters related to snout.
What are the components of 彝?
彝 is composed of: 彑 (structural), 米 (structural), 糸 (structural), 廾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱彑⿱⿰米糸廾 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 彝?
Common words with 彝 include: 红河哈尼族彝族自治州 (hóng hé hā ní zú yí zú zì zhì zhōu, "Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province 雲南省|云南省"); 马边彝族自治县 (mǎ biān yí zú zì zhì xiàn, "Mabian Yi Autonomous County, in Leshan City 樂山市|乐山市, Sichuan"); 江城哈尼族彝族自治县 (jiāng chéng hā ní zú yí zú zì zhì xiàn, "Jiangcheng Hani and Yi Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan"); 路南彝族自治县 (lù nán yí zú zì zhì xiàn, "Lunan Yizu Autonomous County in Yunnan"); 景东彝族自治县 (jǐng dōng yí zú zì zhì xiàn, "Jingdong Yi Autonomous County, in Pu'er City 普洱市, Yunnan"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
Is 彝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 彝 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 彝 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.