The Chinese symbol for justice — 义 (yì)
义 (yì) is righteousness — doing what is right, and standing by the people you owe something to. It is not justice as a legal system, and its highest-frequency modern use is not moral at all: 意义 means 'meaning'.
At a glance
- Character
- 义 full dictionary entry
- Pinyin
- yì
- Literal meaning
- Righteousness; meaning
- Dictionary senses
- Righteousness (justice - meaning) From the same dictionary as our translator.
Stroke order
What 义 means
Where the character comes from
The traditional 義 is 羊 (sheep) over 我, a first-person pronoun that was originally a serrated weapon — a sacrificial animal and a halberd. The simplified 义 is a completely new three-stroke shape taken from cursive, and shares nothing visible with it.
How it is actually used
正义 is justice, 义务 is duty or obligation, 义气 is the loyalty owed among friends, 主义 is the suffix '-ism' (社会主义, socialism), and 意义 is meaning or significance. The last two are by far the commonest.
What 义 does not mean
It does not mean the justice system or a court's verdict — that is 司法 and 判决. It does not mean fairness in distribution, which is 公平.
Claims you will meet elsewhere
"义 means justice."
正义 means justice. On its own, 义 reads as 'meaning' or as the '-ism' suffix to a modern eye, because 意义 and 主义 are two of the most common words in written Chinese.
"义 is an ancient character that has kept its shape."
The traditional 義 has thirteen strokes and the simplified 义 has three. This is one of the largest visual gaps between the two scripts on this list — they do not look like the same character.
"义 is the abstract virtue."
In practice its moral use is concrete and relational: 义气 is what you show by turning up for a friend who is in trouble. It is the virtue of the 水浒传 outlaws, not of a courtroom.
For the general version of this problem — why a machine translation of a single word so often reads as confident nonsense — see Why AI Translators Guess.
The character in different scripts
简体
繁體
This is the split to know before choosing: 義 (13 strokes) is standard in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, 义 (3 strokes) in mainland China and Singapore. Anyone rendering the concept in a classical or calligraphic style will almost certainly write 義.
The words 义 lives in
This is the part a symbol list leaves out, and it is the fastest way to feel what a character actually carries. Readings and meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator; tap any word for its full dictionary entry.
Other ways to say justice
义 is one answer, not the answer. Which of these is right depends on what you mean by "justice" — and that is usually the question worth settling before anything is written down permanently.
Justice — the actual word, and what a Chinese reader expects for the English concept.
Public, impartial, fair. 公平 is fairness and 公正 is impartiality; this is the even-handed side of justice.
Reason and principle. 道理 is what makes an argument right, and 有理 means to be in the right.
义 — frequently asked questions
What is the Chinese symbol for justice?
义 (yì) is righteousness — doing what is right, and standing by the people you owe something to. It is not justice as a legal system, and its highest-frequency modern use is not moral at all: 意义 means 'meaning'. It is written 义 and pronounced yì.
What does 义 not mean?
It does not mean the justice system or a court's verdict — that is 司法 and 判决. It does not mean fairness in distribution, which is 公平.
Is 义 commonly mistranslated?
Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "义 means justice." 正义 means justice. On its own, 义 reads as 'meaning' or as the '-ism' suffix to a modern eye, because 意义 and 主义 are two of the most common words in written Chinese. This page lists 3 such claims about 义 with what is true instead.
Is 义 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
This is the split to know before choosing: 義 (13 strokes) is standard in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, 义 (3 strokes) in mainland China and Singapore. Anyone rendering the concept in a classical or calligraphic style will almost certainly write 義.
What else can I use for justice in Chinese?
Depending on what you mean: 正义, 公, 理. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 义 itself lives in words such as 意义, 正义, 主义.
Concepts that get confused with this one
Keep going
Check any wording of your own in the Chinese to English translator before it goes anywhere permanent, look 义 up in full in the dictionary, learn the components it is built from in the Chinese Radicals guide, see it used in real sentences in the example sentence bank, or read Why AI Translators Guess for why single-word translation is the hardest kind.