Kangxi Radical Head

It is the index sign for the head category.

The graph behind it is 首, a picture of a human head. Late Shang oracle-bone inscriptions—divination records carved on turtle shells and animal bones—include it in a note about a king’s head illness. Bronze inscriptions retain the literal head sense; in the kneeling rite 拜手稽首, a person bows until their head reaches their hands.

The early Chinese character dictionary 《說文解字》 organized entries under 540 section headers. 《字彙》 reduced the system to 214 radicals in 1615; the Kangxi Dictionary adopted the 214-radical, radical-and-stroke arrangement in 1716. A reader finds the category first, then checks the character’s remaining strokes.

Why is ⾸ different from 首?

⾸ is the index sign; 首 is the ordinary character.

Unicode encodes ⾸ and 首 separately: ⾸ is the symbol for the Kangxi radical list, while 首 is a Chinese character used as a word or word part. Some fonts can make the two look nearly alike, so appearance alone may not settle which one you have.

The ordinary character 首 has its own word uses. In Chinese it can mean “head,” “leader,” or “beginning”; Japanese also uses 首 for the head or neck, a leader or the beginning, and as a counter for poems. Those uses belong to 首, not to the index sign ⾸.

How do I type ⾸ in source code?

Use the Unicode escape for the radical character.

Use a Unicode-aware source route when the radical sign is required. The exact escape and HTML character reference are listed in the typing options.

If the two forms look alike in your font, check the character identity in your text instead of relying on its outline.