Chinese symbol for “barbarians”
夷
yí
non-Han people, esp. to the East of China; barbarians; to wipe out; to exterminate
The closest CC-CEDICT match for barbarians is 夷 (yí), defined as: non-Han people, esp. to the East of China; barbarians; to wipe out; to exterminate; to tear down; to raze.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Other Chinese words for “barbarians”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 夷.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 匪夷所思 | fěi yí suǒ sī | unimaginable; outrageous |
| 夷为平地 (夷為平地) | yí wéi píng dì | to level; to raze to the ground |
| 鄙夷 | bǐ yí | to despise; to look down on; to feel contempt for |
| 夷平 | yí píng | to level; to raze to the ground |
| 化险为夷 (化險為夷) | huà xiǎn wéi yí | to turn peril into safety (idiom); to avert disaster |
| 蛮夷 (蠻夷) | mán yí | common term for non-Han peoples in former times, not exclusively derogatory; barbarian |
See also: Japanese symbol for “barbarians”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.