水

shuǐ

water, liquid; a stream or river; the element of water.

Meaning

Literal: Water; a stream or small river.
Categorical: Any liquid, fluid, or juice. In medical or alchemical contexts (particularly Han and early medieval), this may denote specific bodily fluids—such as blood, bile, or humors—or medicinal decoctions.
Cosmological: As one of the //Wu Xing// (Five Elements), it represents a metaphysical force associated with the North, the color black/darkness, cold, and the winter solstice.

As an Attribute: When used to describe character or behavior (common in Daoist texts), it functions as a metaphor for yielding, adaptability, fluidity, and the tendency to seek the lowest point.

vs. 江/河 (Jiang/He): While these refer to specific major rivers, 水 often denotes a generic body of water, an unnamed stream, or the substance itself.
vs. 泉 (Quan): 泉 refers specifically to the source or spring; a shift from 泉 to 水 often marks a transition from the origin to the resulting flow or substance.
vs. 汁/液 (Zhi/Ye): Where these terms specify a biological juice or secretion, the use of 水 suggests either an intentional vagueness or a reference to the liquid's elemental nature rather than its chemical composition.

Radical Note: While 水 as a standalone glyph refers to the substance or element, its appearance as the radical 氵 in other characters generally shifts the focus toward the action or state of liquid (e.g., washing, flowing).

When encountered as an attribute for behavior, translating as "water" may be too literal; consider "fluidity," "adaptability," or "non-resistance."

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.