Radical 194

Radical 194 ( Unicode U+9B3C, pinyin  meaning "ghost" or "demon") is one of eight Kangxi radicals written with ten strokes. 

The character is historically composed of  "legs",  representing a large demon's head and a curl looking similar to  taken to represent a swirl of vapour, or a demon's tail.
The character can be traced to the oracle bone script, where it depicts a man kneeling on a monster head.

Most of the characters derived from the radical have meanings related to ghosts or souls, including   "devil, demon",  "black magic",  "nightmare",  "soul". In some signs, however, the radical is present purely as a phonetic marker, for example in , the State of Wei during the Spring and Autumn period.

Derived characters

Literature 

Li, Leyi: “Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases”. Beijing 1993, 
Harbaugh, Rick, Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary, Yale University Press (1998), .
Childs-Johnson, Elizabeth (江伊莉), 甲骨文的“鬼”与假面具 (The Gui-Spirit in Oracle Bone Inscriptions), International Conference Celebrating the 95th Anniversary of the Discovery of Oracle Bone Inscriptions", Anyang, China, 1994.

See also
Ghosts in Chinese culture
Oni

External links
Unihan Database - U+9B3C

194