How to Write 睪 (yì) — Meaning “To look from a height (archaic); testicle.”

Imagine an eye (目) placed on top of a tall tower (幸 looks like a person with arms raised). This person uses their eye to look far away from the tower, which matches the meaning of looking from a height. For the testicle meaning, picture the eye watching over a small round object below.

Pay attention to the bottom part, which is written like the character 幸 (happiness). The correct order inside 幸 is: first write the 干 strokes (horizontal, vertical, horizontal), then add the point and left-falling strokes, then two horizontals and a final vertical. A common mistake is forgetting the point and left-falling inside the bottom.

睪 has bottom part 幸, while 眦 has 此 (meaning eye corner) and 眭 has 圭 (meaning jade). Visually, 睪 is symmetrical at the bottom, 眦 is more complex, and 眭 has a vertical stack of two 土. In meaning, 睪 is archaic for looking from height, 眦 refers to the corner of the eye, and 眭 means to stare.

睪 is an archaic character not used in everyday modern Chinese. You may encounter it in ancient texts or classical poetry, such as in the word 睪然 (looking from afar). Its modern meaning for testicle is usually written with the character 睾 (gāo) instead.

Common words containing 睪 include: 睪然 (yì rán) — Looking from afar.; 睪睪 (yì yì) — Looking far ahead.; 睪芷 (yì zhǐ) — A type of fragrant plant..