救灾
jiù zāi · HSK 5
to relieve disaster
🚨 救 = rescue + 灾 = disaster; rescue-disaster = disaster relief
救 (jiù) means to rescue or save; 灾 (zāi) means disaster or calamity. The character 灾 shows 宀 (roof) over 火 (fire) — a fire under the roof, the original disaster. Together: rescue work for disasters.
救 — 求 (seek/phonetic) + 攵 (strike/action)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 攵 (a hand holding a stick) gives the action sense of intervening or stopping, while 求 supplies the sound 'jiu'. Originally meaning to halt or stop something bad, it extended to 'rescue, save, aid'.
灾 — roof 宀 + fire 火
灾 is an associative compound showing fire (火) under a roof (宀), depicting a house on fire — the original meaning of 'disaster' or 'calamity'. An older variant 災 added 巛 (flooding water) above 火, combining flood and fire as twin disasters. The modern simplified form keeps just the house-fire image.