How to Write 戟 (jǐ) — Meaning “Halberd (an ancient weapon).”

Imagine a "tall" (卓) warrior holding a "spear" (戈) that has an extra side blade — that is a halberd. The shape of 戟 looks like a person (the top part) standing on a table (卓) and reaching for a weapon (戈).

The left part 卓 is written with 8 strokes: first the vertical, then the horizontal and vertical in the upper box, then the lower 早. The right radical 戈 has 4 strokes: a diagonal stroke (丶) on top, then a horizontal and a slanted hook, and finally a short slash. A common mistake is making the 戈 too narrow or forgetting the small dot above the horizontal line.

戚 (qī) means "sorrow" or "relative" and contains 戈 inside a different frame, while 戟 is only about the weapon. 戛 (jiá) means "to knock" or a type of spear, but it has a different top part (the side structure 丿 and 戈). The main visual difference is 戟 has 卓 on the left, whereas 戚 has an outer enclosure and 戛 has a simpler top.

戟 is rarely used in daily conversation today, but it appears in historical novels, movies, and idioms about ancient warfare. For example, the famous weapon "方天画戟" is associated with the warrior Lü Bu in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The word 戟手 (jǐ shǒu) is a literary term for angrily pointing a finger shaped like a halberd.

Common words containing 戟 include: 方天戟 (fāng tiān jǐ) — double-headed halberd (historical weapon); 戈戟 (gē jǐ) — weapons; halberds and spears; 戟手 (jǐ shǒu) — To point at someone angrily (with fingers like a halberd)..