Several parts combine into one character.

A landmark character with the most divergent THREE-WAY simplification in this entire learning set: — Traditional 繁體 氣: top is 气 (rising vapor), bottom is 米 (rice). Rice cooking, releasing steam — invisible vital energy in physical form. — Japanese shinjitai 気: 米 simplified to メ (a stylized cross). Compromise form. — Simplified 简体 气: 米 dropped entirely, only the vapor outline remains.

Knowing all three forms is essential for reading across CJK script systems. 氣 / 気 / 气 — same character, three visual identities depending on geography.

The character names the foundational East Asian concept of vital energy — qi, ki, or chi in English borrowings. Traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, calligraphy, and meditation all orbit this single character. The English word "qi" comes directly from Mandarin pinyin of this character.

Mandarin: qì, falling 4th tone. 气 anchors an extraordinary range of meanings — air, mood, weather, energy, courtesy, anger: 天气 (tiānqì, weather), 空气 (kōngqì, air), 生气 (shēngqì, to be angry — "raise vital energy"), 客气 (kèqi, polite / formal — "guest energy"), 不客气 (bú kèqi, "you're welcome" — "no need to be guest-formal"), 力气 (lìqi, physical strength), 勇气 (yǒngqì, courage). 不客气 is the everyday Mandarin "you're welcome" — built on the 气 metaphor.

Japanese: on-reading キ (ki) is dominant — 元気 (genki, energetic / well — the standard greeting "How are you?" is 元気ですか?), 空気 (kūki, air), 天気 (tenki, weather), 人気 (ninki, popularity — "person-energy"), 病気 (byōki, sickness — "ill-energy"), 電気 (denki, electricity), 気持ち (kimochi, feeling — kun-reading hybrid), 平気 (heiki, composed / "no problem"). 元気 and 気持ち are perhaps the two single most important emotional vocabulary items in Japanese.

The Japanese national greeting 元気ですか? (Genki desu ka? "Are you well / energetic?") rests entirely on this character.

Memory aid: vital energy (气) rising from cooking rice (米) — invisible ki given form.