之

Descendants

 * し ( character derived from )
 * シ ( character derived from )
 * 𛁄 ( character derived from )

Glyph origin

 * compound meaning “to go”.

Etymology

 * demonstrative pronoun "this; he; she; it"
 * From (STEDT). Cognate with, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬.


 * "to go; to proceed"
 * Cognate with (> ),,  (> ), 🇨🇬.

Definitions

 * 1)  to go
 * 2)  to sprout; to come about
 * 3)  this; these
 * 1)  to sprout; to come about
 * 2)  this; these
 * 1)  this; these

Usage notes
Remember that Chinese grammar is more about reducing ambiguity and less about following rules. The other meanings of this word all stem from the 3rd pronoun and demonstrative meaning (except the "to go" meaning which is unrelated). It roughly means "him, it, this" > "his, its" > "'s"/qualifier. Compare > Min Nan possessive 個.

Juxtaposition alone can indicate possession or qualification in Chinese even without this word. The actual purpose of this word is to act like a comma to group the words before it as a noun clause and prevent what comes after from being interpreted as the object of a verb. Consider "上山道" whence "上之山道" (mountain road that is up there) and "上山之道" (road for climbing a mountain). Like, unambiguous and popular compounds like drop the. Other grammatical characters also work by enforcing a grouping of words. Modern Chinese fossilizes this word and uses instead, which originated from either 之 or, and took on the "'s"/qualifier meaning.

as a pronoun, functions like a noun determiner while is a verb determiner. Consider "食此藥！若不食之, 將死" which would mean "Eat this medicine! If you don't [eat] this (like if you eat some other medicine), you'll die" and contrast "食此藥！不然(=若不食), 將死" which would mean "Eat this medicine! If you don't do this (or if you do something else), you'll die."

Kanji

 * 1) -'s,
 * 2) this
 * 3) to go

Etymology 1
. Formerly used to represent the possessive particle. In modern Japanese, this character is seldom used, and most commonly found in names, such as.