The character 立 (lì): to stand

A paved terrace on a Chinese mountain top, edged with a carved stone balustrade, with pines clinging to the rocks and a sea of cloud to the horizon under an orange sunrise sky where the sun still sits low. At the left a flat dark teal silhouette of a person stands facing the viewer, arms along the body. At the right the character 立 in dark brown: a tilted mark at the top, a bar, two small obliques converging downward, and a long bar below.

Pronunciation: lì
Strokes: 5
Radical: 立

What it means

to stand; to set up; to establish; to lay down; to draw up; at once; immediately

Where its shape comes from

Xu Shen reads it as 大 (dà), a person seen from the front with arms spread wide, set on top of a single stroke, and that stroke is the ground. The bone inscriptions give exactly this: a standing figure with a line under its feet. The upper part of today's character can no longer be recognised as a person, but the bar at the foot is still the ground.

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

A way to remember it

A dot, a bar, two small marks splaying apart, then one long bar for the ground. Nothing touches anything else: five strokes laid one below the other, and the character is finished.

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

Words it appears in

建立 jiàn lì · HSK 5 to establish; to set up; to found
成立 chéng lì · HSK 5 to establish; to set up; to be tenable; to hold water
立即 lì jí · HSK 5 immediately
独立 dú lì · HSK 5 independent; independence; to stand alone
立刻 lì kè · HSK 5 forthwith; immediate; prompt; promptly; straightway; thereupon; at once
立场 lì chǎng · HSK 6 position; standpoint; CL:個|个[ge4]

Writing it

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