乙
second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shi2 tian1 gan1]; second in order; letter "B" or Roman "II" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc; second party (in legal contract, usually 乙方[yi3 fang1], as opposed to 甲方[jia3 fang1]); ethyl; bent; winding; radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 5); ancient Chinese compass point: 105°; turning stroke (in Chinese characters), aka 折[zhe2]
Closest English meanings
second·Yi
The Calligrapher — Yán Zhēnqīng 颜真卿
Tang master of robust regular script; co-creator of the enduring 'Yan style'.
Tang calligrapher (709–784), master of regular script/running script — the Tang moral paragon whose upright, muscular regular script became the model of Chinese integrity in writing. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
乙 is the second of the ten heavenly stems, the label after 甲 in the old counting system that filed years, rooms, and exam papers before digits. A scribe's 乙 was also the mark correcting a line, a stroke like a hooked second. The 說文 calls it the winding one. It is a placeholder, the B of a world that counted in tens and curves.
Common words & phrases
- 乙方 party B · second party
- 乙醇 ethanol · alcohol
- 乙醚 ether
- 乙等 grade B
Read the story behind the character
乙方 is the contractor across the table; 乙醇 the alcohol in the lab and the hand sanitizer. 乙醚 is the anesthetic you hope the dentist handles well; 乙等 the B-grade fruit nobody photographs. The stem survives in birth years and the odd 乙丑 plaque. Mostly the character is chemistry now and contract law, a quiet second-place letter borrowed by the periodic table and the bid.
Why this character belongs on skin
There is a character that does not stand but bends. 乙 is the second of the ten heavenly stems, the quiet runner-up in the old Chinese count of years and seasons. Where the first is upright force, 乙 is the curve that follows — the vine twisting up a trellis, the river that will not run straight. The sages paired it with wood and with spring, the moment life stops resisting and begins to grow around whatever blocks it. To carry 乙 is to honor the part of your story that is not first, not loud, not the headline. It is the second breath after the first fails. It is the turn in the road you did not choose but learned to love. Some of us are not the spark; we are the slow green claiming the wall. Ink this on your skin and you make a vow to the bend — to resilience that looks like surrender, to the spring that arrives because it refused to break.
Own this character
Purchase delivers the original SVG of this glyph, brushed by Yán Zhēnqīng 颜真卿, ready to place on skin, paper, or screen.