In parks in Bozhou of Anhui province, hometown to the famous second-century physician Hua Tuo (华佗), it’s common to see people moving like animals, mimicking crouching tigers, running deer, walking bears, grazing apes, and flying cranes.
Yet these are no circus performers. They are merely practicing the tai chi-like Five Animal Frolics (五禽戏). According to the History of the Later Han Dynasty (《后汉书》), its creator, Hua, believed these movements could improve digestion and blood circulation, and help prevent illness—but they should be practiced in moderation. “The human body needs exercise, but one should not overdo it (人体欲得劳动，但不当使极尔 Réntǐ yù dé láodòng, dàn bùdāng shǐ jí ěr),” he states.
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The benefits of physical exercise for the body were widely recognized in ancient China. In the fourth-century BCE book Discourses of the States (《国语》), historian Bo Yangfu (伯阳父) compares “strengthening the four limbs to preserve the body (刚四支以卫体 gāng sì zhī yǐ wèi tǐ)” to governing a state, arguing that rulers must balance and coordinate competing interests to achieve harmony.
The traditional Chinese character for “body” first appeared in silk manuscripts more than 2,000 years ago: 體. It combines the 骨 (gǔ, bone) radical on the left, which points to its meaning, with the 豊 (lǐ, ritual vessels) radical on the right, which serves as its phonetic component. Together, they form “tǐ,” meaning the body of human beings or other creatures.
Today, we use its simplified form 体, adopted in standard writing during the Chinese character simplification movement of the 1950s. Far from a new invention, 体 originally meant “clumsy,” and was used alternatively with 體 from the Song dynasty (960 – 1279). It has since shed this earlier meaning. Consisting of a 人 (rén, person) radical and a 本 (běn, root or base) radical, the simplified character can be interpreted as “a person’s core,” a reading that some believed better reflects the importance of the body.
The idea of building a strong and healthy body can be summarized with the Chinese idiom 强身健体 (qiángshēn jiàntǐ). In modern times, though, 身体 (shēntǐ), which pairs 体 with its synonym 身 (shēn, body), is more often used to indicate the body as a whole, while 肢体 (zhītǐ) refers to body parts, specifically the limbs, like in 锻炼身体 (duànliàn shēntǐ, literally “to exercise the body”), and 肢体语言 (zhītǐ yǔyán, body language).
Despite its long history, sport was not always regarded as a distinct activity in ancient China, often overlapping with military training, such as archery and horseback riding, or recreation, such as dragon boat racing. It was not until the 1900s that the term 体育 (tǐyù)—borrowed from the Japanese translation of “physical education”—entered the modern Chinese vocabulary to mean “sport.”
As the nation’s waistlines have expanded in recent decades along with rising living standards, many have begun to watch their weight (体重 tǐzhòng), while others rely on annual health checkups (体检 tǐjiǎn) to stay on top of things.
When used to form verbs and adjectives, 体 often indicates one’s experience. For instance, 体验 (tǐyàn) means “to experience,” and 体贴 (tǐtiē) means “considerate.”
The character was later extended to mean objects or 物体 (wùtǐ), from liquids (液体 yètǐ) and gases (气体 qìtǐ) to celestial bodies (天体 tiāntǐ). It’s also used to categorize forms and styles in the language and literary sector: Simplified Chinese characters are known as 简体 (jiǎntǐ), often featuring fewer strokes than the traditional form (繁体 fántǐ, literally “complex form”). The styles of famous Tang dynasty (618 – 907) calligraphers Yan Zhenqing (颜真卿) and Liu Gongquan (柳公权) are respectively named Yan-style (颜体 Yán tǐ), known for its broad, rounded forms, and Liu-style (柳体 Liǔ tǐ), famous for its slender and angular forms.
The 11th-century poet and calligrapher Su Shi (苏轼) thus celebrated the diversity of good calligraphy: “Tall or short, plump or slender, each has its own beauty; who could despise either?”—wise and comforting words for those who struggle with body image.
体 can mean so much more than a concrete form. Chinese philosopher Mencius used 大体 (dàtǐ, “the greater part of the body”) to refer to the mind. The term later came to mean the “bigger picture” or the overall situation. Hence, 识大体 (shí dàtǐ) means “to keep the bigger picture in mind.”
From flesh and bone to the whole, 体 has come to encompass the body, the mind, and the world around us.
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