之 zhī him; her; it
Made up of [丿 piě 'slash' radical 4]Made with 3 strokes.
Ancient pictogram of a foot and line suggesting going forward, so perhaps by extension an abstract 'living person' - someone moving
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 丿 piě component: 必 bì (certainly) 弟 dì (younger brother) 乎 hū (at) 久 jiǔ (long time) 九 jiǔ (nine) 乐 lè (music) 么 me (what) 乃 nǎi (to be) 年 nián (year) 少 shǎo (less) 生 shēng (produce) 失 shī (to lose) 勿 wù (do not) 戊 wù (fifth (ordinal)) 午 wǔ (noon) 义 yì (justice) 族 zú (clan)
Sounds same
只 zhī (one) 知 zhī (to know) 支 zhī (to support) 枝 zhī (branch)Different tone
直 zhí (straight) 值 zhí (value) 植 zhí (to plant) 纸 zhǐ (paper) 止 zhǐ (to stop) 夂 zhǐ (walk slowly) 志 zhì (aspiration) 至 zhì (to arrive) 治 zhì (to rule) 致 zhì (to send) 置 zhì (to install)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 之, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
People
王羲之 Wang XizhiProverbs
冰冻三尺,非一日之寒 bīng dòng sān chǐ, fēi yí rì zhī hán It takes time to achieve satisfactory results初生之犊不怕虎 chū shēng zhī dú bù pà hǔ Innocence about the dangers involved
害群之马 hài qún zhī mǎ The bad person of the family or group
井底之蛙 jǐng dǐ zhī wā A frog in a well. The story is of a frog that only knows of the water in the well and knew nothing of the sea, and can only see a small portion of the sky.
九牛二虎之力 jiǔ niú èr hǔ zhī lì Tremendously strong
皮之不存毛将焉附 pí zhī bù cún maó jiāng yān fù Everything needs its proper environment for nurture