杀 shā to kill; to murder; to fight
Made up of [木 mù wood; wooden radical 75]Alternative traditional form of character: 殺
Made with 6 strokes.
The wood radical is modified with a tail in this case. The traditional form had 'shu' as rough phonetic
Related characters
Also uses 木 mù component: 板 bǎn (board) 杯 bēi (cup) ; 本 běn (root) ; 菜 cài (vegetable) ; 彩 cǎi (color) ; 茶 chá (tea) ; 柴 chái (firewood) ; 床 chuáng (bed) ; 杆 gān (pole) ; 果 guǒ (fruit) ; 机 jī (machine) ; 禁 jìn (to prohibit) ; 禁 jìn (to prohibit) ; 桔 jú (tangerine) ; 棵 kē (of plants) ; 来 lái (arrive) ; 李 lǐ (plum) ; 梨 lí (pear) ; 林 lín (forest) ; 楼 lóu (multi-story building) ; 棋 qí (board game) ; 秦 qín (Qin) ; 亲 qīn (parent) ; 柔 róu (soft) ; 树 shù (tree) ; 术 shù (method) ; 宋 song (Song) ; 条 tiáo (strip) ; 未 wèi (not yet) ; 闲 xián (to stay idle) ; 相 xiāng (each other) ; 校 xiào (school) ; 椅 yǐ (chair) ; 植 zhí (to plant) ; 枝 zhī (branch) ; 桌 zhuō (table)
Pronunciation
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Proverbs
杀鸡给猴看 shā jī gěi hóu kàn To punish somebody as a lesson and warning to others杀一儆百 shā yī jǐng bǎi To warn many people by punishing a few. Making example punishments
杀妻求将 shā qī qiú jiàng Ruthless action to further one's ambition. The story is of Wu Qi who served the state of Lu. His wife originally came from the enemy state of Qi; seeing this as an obstacle to his ambition to become a general, he killed his wife. He got the promotion so it is about ruthless but effective action.
杀人不眨眼 shā rén bù zhǎ yǎn Ruthless; cold-blooded.
杀鸡焉用牛刀 shā jī yān yòng niú dāo Taking unnecessary effort to tackle a small problem. Using an inappropriately large tool for the job.
曾参杀人 Zēng Shēn shā rén A false rumor. The story is that the mother of Zeng Shen was weaving cloth. Someone came in to tell her that her son had been found guilty of murder. She did not believe it saying he would not do such a thing. Another person came with the same report and she still would not believe it. Only when the third person gave the same story did she reacted and stopped her work. The story was in fact of another man called 'Zeng Shen' and not her son.