乙
second celestial stem; musical note; mark; surname
Meanings
4 senses · 7 examplesnoun
second of the ten celestial stems
formalUsed in traditional Chinese sexagenary cycle dating and ranking systems.
This year is the Guimao year of the sexagenary cycle, Mao is the 4th earthly branch, Yi is the 2nd celestial stem.
Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding are the most commonly used celestial stem rankings.
noun
musical note (equivalent to solfège '7')
technicalUsed in traditional Chinese gongche musical notation system.
The Yi note appears three times in this traditional Chinese folk music score.
noun
Yi-shaped correction or pause mark
archaicUsed to mark pauses, corrections, or section breaks in ancient and traditional texts before punctuation was standardized.
Ancient scholars would draw a Yi-shaped mark at the end of a section to indicate a new paragraph.
When copying ancient texts, if you find missing characters, you use a Yi-shaped mark to insert the added characters.
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In the old days, teachers would use Yi-shaped marks to mark places where reading should pause when grading homework.
proper noun
surname Yi
neutralA relatively rare Chinese surname.
Mr. Yi is my university professor.