Radical 17

凵
← 16 Radical 17 (U+2F10) 18 →
凵 (U+51F5) "receptacle"
Pronunciations
Pinyin:	kǎn
Bopomofo:	ㄎㄢˇ
Wade–Giles:	kʻan3
Cantonese Yale:	hom1
Jyutping:	ham3
Pe̍h-ōe-jī:	khám
Japanese Kana:	カン kan (on'yomi)
Sino-Korean:	감 gam
Names
Chinese name(s):	凶字框 xiōngzìkuàng 下三框 xiàsānkuāng
Japanese name(s):	凵繞/かんにょう kannyō 受け箱/うけばこ ukebako 下箱/したばこ shitabako 函構/かんがまえ kangamae
Hangul:	입벌릴 ip beolril
Stroke order animation

Radical 17 or radical open box (凵部) is one of 23 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of 2 strokes.

凵 is also the 20th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China.

As for the similar radicals 22 匚 and 13 冂, the name of radical 17 is purely descriptive of its shape, 下三框 "lower three-sided frame".

Evolution

• 
  Oracle bone script character
• 
  Large seal script character
• 
  Small seal script character

Derived characters

Strokes	Characters
+0	凵
+2	凶 (bad, inauspicious)
+3	凷 凸 凹 出 (go out, send out) 击SC (=擊 -> 手, to hit)
+4	凼
+6	函SC/TC variant/函Kangxi/JP/KO variant (box)
+7	凾 (=函)
+10	凿SC (=鑿 -> 金)

The radical does not occur as a character on its own. In combination, it historically takes meanings such as "open mouth", "box", "frame", "hole" or "receptacle".

Also derived from the radical are the Simplified Chinese characters including 击 "to hit", without any historical connection to the radical.

幽 "deep, dark" is derived from radical 46 (山 "mountain") rather than radical 17.

Literature

• Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1.
• Leyi Li: “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2
• KangXi: page 134, character 17

External links

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