黑

1. Literal color: Black (e.g., hair, garments).

2. Environmental darkness: An absolute darkness or total void.

3. Moral/Legal status: Sinister, illicit, or corrupt; used to denote a lack of transparency or moral soil.

Primarily functions as an adjective or as a noun referring to the color itself. In later contexts, it may function adverbially to mean “secretly” or “under cover of darkness.”

• vs. 暗 (àn): 黑 typically denotes absolute darkness, whereas 暗 suggests dimness, obscurity, or failing light.
• vs. 墨 (mò): 黑 refers to the color/quality; 墨 refers to the substance (ink/soot).
• vs. 晦 (huì): While both relate to darkness, 晦 is specialized for calendrical darkness (the end of the lunar month) or specific types of obscurity.
• Antonym: 白 (white/pure/clear).

Tang-period reading: *xək. Z-variant: U+9ED2.

The glyph’s origins in soot and smoke suggest a "stained" or "soiled" blackness, providing the basis for its extension into moral judgments of corruption.