ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

sunny; clear sky

qíng
12 strokes · 日 (sun radical) + 青 (blue-green, sound qīng→qíng) · HSK 2

Where 晴 comes from

Sun 日 plus 青 the blue-green of clear depths: 晴 is the sky after rain walks away — sun out, air rinsed, blue restored. The character is a weather report in two strokes-groups: sun, plus the color of clean.

晴 in Chinese culture

晴 completes the weather trio with 阴 overcast and 雨 rain that every Chinese forecast recites. 晴天霹雳 'thunderbolt from a clear sky' is shocking news at its most idiomatic; poets since Su Shi have argued West Lake is 晴方好 — best on a clear day (he then argued rain was equally good; poets hedge).

Example

晴天 qíngtiān — sunny day

明天是晴天,我们去公园吧。
Míngtiān shì qíngtiān, wǒmen qù gōngyuán ba.
Tomorrow will be sunny — let's go to the park.

How to remember it

Sun 日 dyeing the sky blue-green 青 — a CLEAR day.

周杰伦's ballad《晴天》made this weather character a generation's shorthand for school-days nostalgia — millions learned to write it from a lyric video.

Same sound, different tones

1st qīng
blue-green
2nd qíng
sunny
3rd qǐng
please
4th qìng
to celebrate

Words unlocked by 晴

晴天 qíngtiān
sunny day
晴天霹雳 qíngtiān pīlì
bolt from the blue
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One character a morning · 169-character HSK library · iOS