In Chinese simplification:
When meaning to dry: 

shield, dry, to violate, to interfere

 is used as the simplified form (e.g., 干燥 for 乾燥).
When meaning heaven/trigram: 乾 remains unchanged (e.g., 乾坤).
In the I Ching, 乾 represents heaven, creativity, and yang (

sun, sunlight, yang principle

trunk, stem, main part, essential, to manage

The second of the ten heavenly stems (天干 (tiāngān))

 (을, bent shape) – semantic element.
倝 (간, “morning sunlight”) – phonetic element.
Although it resembles a compound of 𠦝 and 乞, the accepted analysis follows the structure 

乾燥 (건조) — dryness, to dry
乾坤 (건곤) — heaven and earth (cosmic duality)
乾隆 (건륭) — reign title of a Qing emperor
乾杯 (건배) — “cheers!” (lit. empty the cup)

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

a small round object, pellet, ball, pill

king, lord, master, sovereign

thus, then, only, surprisingly

to go, proceed, advance

to ride, to mount, to board, to take advantage of

nine, number 9, ninth

milk, to nurse, to breastfeed

to dry, to wither, to parch, heaven, sky (as in the Eight Trigrams, 乾卦)

to be disordered, chaotic, in turmoil

to finish, to complete, to understand

affair, matter, work

at, in, to, from, than

mutual, each other, to exchange

five, number 5, fifth

second, next, inferior, subordinate

urgent, rapid, frequent, repeatedly, to strive or act with haste

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Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

乾

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 乾

Additional notes

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References