漢 (simplified Chinese: 汉; pronounced hàn in Mandarin) is a Chinese character with a long history and many uses. It is one of the most recognizable characters across East Asia.

The character started out as the name of the Han River, a major river in central China. About 2,200 years ago, the famous Han dynasty took its name from this river, and the dynasty became so respected that the Chinese people themselves came to be known as the "Han people" — a name still used today.

The character is so important to Chinese culture that the words for "Chinese characters" in three different countries all use 漢: hànzì (漢字) in China, kanji (漢字) in Japan, and hanja (漢字) in Korea.

The character 漢 has several connected meanings.

The oldest meaning of 漢 is the Han River, which flows through central China. The river starts in the mountains of Shaanxi Province and runs through Hubei Province, where it joins the Yangtze River at the city of Wuhan. The "han" in Wuhan literally comes from this character.

Because the character started as a river name, the left side of 漢 is 氵, the "water radical." A radical is a part of a Chinese character that often gives a clue about meaning. The water radical tells us that the original meaning had to do with water.

In 206 BCE, a leader named Liu Bang became the first emperor of a new Chinese dynasty. Before he became emperor, he ruled a smaller area called Hanzhong (漢中), which was named after the Han River. When Liu Bang became emperor, he kept that name, and his dynasty became known as the Han dynasty (漢朝).

The Han dynasty ruled China from 206 BCE to 220 CE. It is remembered as one of the greatest dynasties in Chinese history. Many things we think of as "classically Chinese" — including paper, the civil service system, and the Silk Road — were developed or expanded during the Han dynasty.

After the Han dynasty became famous, people began calling themselves "Han people" — the Han Chinese — to honor the dynasty's golden age. Today, the Han Chinese are by far the largest ethnic group in China, making up about 92% of the country's people. They are also the largest ethnic group in the entire world.

In classical Chinese poetry, 漢 can also mean the Milky Way — the band of stars stretching across the night sky. Poets called it the "heavenly river" (天漢, tiānhàn), comparing the bright streak of stars to the flowing Han River.

The character is also used as a Chinese surname.

The character 漢 is built from two parts:

• Left side: 氵, the water radical (a shortened form of 水, meaning "water")
• Right side: 𦰩, a phonetic component that gives a clue about how the character should sound

This kind of character — a meaning part plus a sound part — is the most common type in Chinese, called a "phono-semantic compound." About 80–90% of all Chinese characters are built this way.

The character 漢 first appears in bronze inscr