Kangxi radical

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The 214 Kangxi radicals (Chinese: 康熙部首; pinyin: Kāngxī bùshǒu), also known as Zihui radicals, were collated in the 18th-century Kangxi Dictionary to aid categorization of Chinese characters. They are primarily sorted by stroke count. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order characters by radical and stroke count. They are encoded in Unicode alongside other CJK characters, under the block "Kangxi radicals", while graphical variants are included with in the "CJK Radicals Supplement".

Originally introduced in the 1615 Zihui, they are more commonly referred to in relation to the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary—Kangxi being the commissioning emperor's era name. The 1915 encyclopedic word dictionary Ciyuan also uses this system. In modern times, many dictionaries that list Traditional Chinese head characters continue to use this system. For example, the Wang Li Character Dictionary of Ancient Chinese (2000) adopted the Kangxi radicals system. The system of 214 Kangxi radicals is based on the older system of 540 radicals used in the Han-era Shuowen Jiezi. Since 2009, the Chinese Government has promoted a 201-radical system (Table of Han Character Radicals) called the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components, as a national standard for use with simplified character forms.