肾
shèn · HSK 7
kidney
🫘 月 flesh-organ radical + 臤 on top; a body organ pronounced shèn
The bottom 月 is the flesh/body-organ radical that tags many internal organs (肝 liver, 胃 stomach). The top 臤 (made of 臣 official + 又 hand) carries the sound. Kidney-bean glyph 🫘 echoes the organ shape.
肾 — 又 hand + 月 flesh/body radical
肾 is the simplified form of 腎. It is a semantic-phonetic compound: the 月 (flesh) radical signals a body organ, while 臤 (qiān) on top served as the phonetic. The simplified form replaces 臤 with 又 (hand), keeping the meaning 'kidney' but losing the original sound clue.