The character 子 (zǐ): child

A Chinese courtyard in full sun: a vermilion door with gold knockers framed by red paper bands, red lanterns under the tiled eaves, grey brick walls and a tree in yellow leaf. On the flagstones at the left, the flat amber yellow silhouette of a small child holds up a red lantern on a pole. On the right, against the bricks, the character 子 in very dark brown: a stroke along the top breaking down to the left, an upright ending in a hook, and a long bar across it.

Pronunciation: zǐ
Strokes: 3
Radical: 子

What it means

son; child; seed; egg; small thing; 1st earthly branch: 11 p.m.-1 a.m., midnight, 11th solar month (7th December to 5th January), year of the rat; viscount, fourth of five orders of nobility 五等爵位[wu3deng3 jue2wei4]; ancient Chinese compass point: 0° (north); subsidiary; subordinate; (prefix) sub-

Where its shape comes from

A baby: a large head, two open arms, and a lower body swaddled in one piece, which is why there is a single shaft and no legs. Xu Shen moves straight on to the calendar, where 子 names the first of the twelve Earthly Branches, but he files the graph itself among the figurings. The oracle bones know two forms of it, one of which still has hair.

Source: Xu Shen, Shuowen Jiezi (121 CE); the Chinese University of Hong Kong character database.

A way to remember it

The first stroke runs along the top and then breaks downwards to the left: that is ONE stroke. The shaft then goes all the way down and lifts into a hook, and the long crossbar closes the whole thing. Put 女 on the left and 子 on the right and you have just written 好 (hǎo), "good".

This is a memory aid, not the origin of the character.

Words it appears in

儿子 ér zi · HSK 1 son
桌子 zhuō zi · HSK 1 table; desk; CL:張|张[zhang1],套[tao4]
椅子 yǐ zi · HSK 1 chair; CL:把[ba3],張|张[zhang1]
杯子 bēi zi · HSK 1 cup; glass; CL:個|个[ge4],隻|只[zhi1]
孩子 hái zi · HSK 2 child
妻子 qī zi · HSK 2 wife

Writing it

See the stroke order of 子, animated stroke by stroke.