How to Write 彘 (zhì) — Meaning “pig (archaic)”

Imagine a pig (彐) that has been shot with an arrow (矢) and then cooked, so you use a spoon (匕) to eat it. This weird story connects all three components in order: pig head, arrow, spoon. Visualizing the scene will help you recall the shape of 彘 easily.

Write the top radical 彐 with three strokes, making it narrow and centered. Then add 矢, making sure its last stroke (捺) extends to the right but does not touch the bottom part 匕. A common mistake is making the middle part too tall or forgetting that 匕 has a curved final stroke (竖弯钩) that hooks upward.

彘 (pig) and 彗 (comet) both have the top radical 彐, but their lower parts are different: 彘 has 矢 and 匕, while 彗 has 帚 (a broom shape). Their meanings are completely unrelated — 彘 is an archaic word for pig, and 彗 is used in modern Chinese in words like 彗星 (comet). Visually, 彗's bottom part looks like a broom with a horizontal line, while 彘's bottom is a small spoon.

彘 is very rarely used in modern Chinese, having been replaced by the common character 猪 for 'pig'. You may encounter it in classical texts, ancient proverbs, or set phrases like 狗彘 (dogs and pigs, used as an insult for contemptible people). It also appears in historical terms such as 彘肉 (archaic pork) or 彘肩 (archaic shoulder of pork), but these are not used in everyday speech.

Common words containing 彘 include: 彘肉 (zhì ròu) — pork (archaic); 狗彘 (gǒu zhì) — Dogs and pigs (contemptible people); 彘肩 (zhì jiān) — shoulder of pork (archaic).