脾气
píqì · HSK 5
irritation
😤 脾气 = spleen + qi/breath; in TCM the spleen holds your temper
脾 means spleen, 气 means qi or breath/energy. Traditional Chinese medicine ties the spleen to emotional regulation, so spleen-qi literally names the seat of one's temper or disposition.
脾 — flesh radical 月 (肉) + 卑 bēi (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 月 (a form of 肉 'flesh/organ') signals a body organ, while 卑 supplies the sound, originally close to 'pí'. It denotes the spleen in traditional Chinese medicine, long viewed as central to digestion and the transformation of food into qi.
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.