ZHIZHI 知止 · LEARN CHINESE DAILY

correct / upright / just (now)

zhèng
5 strokes · 一 (a line, the target) + 止 (foot) — a foot marching straight at the goal · HSK 2

Where 正 comes from

正 stacks a foot 止 beneath a line marking the destination: walking straight toward the target, no swerving. Straightness became correctness — the moral geometry Chinese loves.

正 in Chinese culture

正 is rightness in every register: 正在 (right now, in the middle of — 我正在学习, I'm studying right now), 真正 (genuine), 正常 (normal). Chinese tally counts use 正 — its five strokes make it the native tally-mark: shopkeepers count 正正正 where the West scratches four bars and a slash. Confucian texts demand 正名 (rectifying names) and a 正 posture for a 正 heart — geometry as ethics, five strokes at a time.

Example

正在 zhèngzài — in the middle of (doing)

我正在吃饭。
Wǒ zhèngzài chīfàn.
I'm eating right now.

How to remember it

A foot 止 walking dead-straight at the line 一 — CORRECT.

Chinese tallies in 正: each completed character = 5. Count a restaurant's queue slips and you'll see columns of 正正正.

Same sound, different tones

1st zhēng
(in 正月: first lunar month)
3rd zhěng
whole / exact
4th zhèng
correct

Words unlocked by 正

正在 zhèngzài
in the middle of
真正 zhēnzhèng
genuine
正常 zhèngcháng
normal
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