蔡

Translingual

Han character

蔡 (Kangxi radical 140, 艸+11, 15 strokes in traditional Chinese, 14 strokes in simplified Chinese, cangjie input 廿月人火 (TBOF), four-corner 4490₁, composition ⿱艹祭)

Derived characters

• 攃 櫒 礤 䌨 𠐐 𡂠 𡣮 𤁱 𧭝 𨯓 𩧇 𪒼 𢨝 𩁞 𪇭 𫊈 𬪝 𬯡 𮜨

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1055, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 31818
• Dae Jaweon: page 1517, character 17
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3282, character 10
• Unihan data for U+8521

Chinese

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• 蔡

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 蔡
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Qin slip script	Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sʰlaːds) : semantic 艸 (“vegetation”) + phonetic 祭 (OC *ʔsreːds, *ʔsleds).

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Definitions

蔡

1. (obsolete) weed
2. (obsolete) tortoise used for divination
3. (～國) (historical) Cai (an ancient Chinese state)

   • 孔子遷于蔡三歲，吳伐陳。楚救陳，軍于城父。聞孔子在陳蔡之間，楚使人聘孔子。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     孔子迁于蔡三岁，吴伐陈。楚救陈，军于城父。闻孔子在陈蔡之间，楚使人聘孔子。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Kǒngzǐ qiān yú Cài sān suì, Wú fá Chén. Chǔ jiù Chén, jūn yú Chéngfù. Wén Kǒngzǐ zài Chén Cài zhījiān, Chǔ shǐ rén pìn Kǒngzǐ.

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. a surname

   蔡英文  ―  Cài Yīngwén  ―  Tsai Ing-wen (President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), 2016–present)

   蔡倫／蔡伦  ―  Cài Lún  ―  Cai Lun (inventor of paper)

Compounds

Descendants

• → English: Cai, Tsai, Ts'ai, Choi, Choy, Tsoi, Chua
• → Tagalog: Chua (via Hokkien)

Japanese

Kanji

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Readings

• Go-on: さい (sai)
• Kan-on: さい (sai)
• On: さつ (satsu)
• Kun: くさむら (kusamura, 蔡); あくた (akuta, 蔡)

References

• “蔡”, in 漢字ぺディア (Kanjipedia)‎ (in Japanese), 日本漢字能力検定協会, 2015–2024

Korean

Hanja

蔡 (eum 채 (chae))
蔡 (eum 살 (sal))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Vietnamese

Han character

蔡: Hán Nôm readings: Thái

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.