What ⻘ means
Use 青 in words and names; ⻘ labels the radical.
A radical is the component under which a dictionary files a character. The Kangxi dictionary, published in 1716, grouped characters by radical, then by the number of remaining strokes. ⻘ lets a text discuss this component as a component, rather than use it as a word.
Their similar appearance does not make ⻘ and 青 interchangeable. Substituting the radical in a name or sentence can prevent an exact-text search from matching the ordinary character.
“Blue” tells only part of the story
The label comes from 青, whose Chinese color meanings include blue, green and dark shades. It does not mean that ⻘ will appear in blue ink: this is a text symbol, and its appearance follows the font and text formatting.
The Eastern Han dictionary Shuowen Jiezi associated 青 with the east. That belongs to the history of the underlying character; ⻘ is the separately encoded symbol for discussing its radical form.
Part of the collection
Don't confuse it with
1
Questions people ask
1Why does ⻘ show as a box on some devices?
Not every system ships a font for the CJK Radicals Supplement block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.
More like this
10
How to type or find ⻘
- Also called
- blue radical · qing radical · radical 174
- Search it as
- 青 radical · Kangxi radical
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
⻘\2ED8Why is ⻘ a box on my screen?
fsymbols draws rare signs with its own fonts, so they show here even where your device has none. An app or website without such a font shows an empty box (□) or a question mark instead. Turn our fonts off to see each sign as your device draws it by itself: a box here means a box in your chats and documents too.
Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.