力气
lìqì · HSK 4
physical strength
💪 力 = strength + 气 = breath/qi; literally 'strength-energy'
力 depicts a flexed arm or plow, meaning force or power. 气 is breath, air, vital energy (qi). Together 力气 names the bodily strength you spend on physical effort.
力 — pictograph of a plow or arm muscle
力 originated as a pictograph of an ancient plow, the main tool requiring physical exertion in early agriculture. Some scholars also see it as a flexed arm showing muscle. From this concrete image it broadened to mean 'strength, power, force, effort'.
气 — steam/vapor radical 气
Originally a pictograph of rising vapor or clouds drifting in the sky, depicting curling streams of air. The character came to mean breath, air, and by extension vital energy or 'qi.' The simplified form 气 keeps the original outline; the traditional 氣 added 米 (rice) to suggest steam rising from cooking grain.