I've been creating some of my own lists and I noticed that Skritter lists both 見 and 西 as Kangxi radical 147.

According to the sources I have checked 西 is 146.

Actually, some sources say that 146 is 襾 and 西 is a variant of that. Skritter doesn't say anything about 襾 being a radical.

Is there a definitive source for Kangxi radicals?

The definitive source for Kangxi radicals is of course the Kanxi dictionary itself. An online version can be found at http://www.kangxizidian.com/index2.php . For many characters, the zdic at http://www.zdic.net/ will also include the relevant extractions from the Kanxi dictionary in the 康熙字典 tab.

I tried to work it out from the online Kangxi dictionary. Short story: I got 141 and 142 for 襾 and 見. I don't think these should be the same radical.

Long story: I wrote a Kangxi dictionary users guide as I tried to work this puzzle out :P

Change the four digit page number at the end of a url below to go to any page in Kangxi.

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0050.gif

(page 50 is the first page of the index by stroke number, on the left hand half). Pages read top-to-bottom, right-to-left.

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0075.gif

(page 75 seems to be the start of the dictionary proper, with characters formed from the 一 radical)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0071.gif

(page 71 is distinguishing similar characters - check out 月 on the right - one means 肉, one means 月. There are different pages for characters where 5, 4, 3, 2 are similar, i.e. 五字相似, 四字相似)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0066.gif

(page 66 is the start of the similar characters section (辨似) and the end of the index by stroke number, with a 52 stroke character similar to 靐 - you might need to zoom that one - in it)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0041.gif

(page 41 seems to be the start of an index of radicals but don't really understand this)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0020.gif

(circles and suns - no idea)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1576.gif

(page 1576 is the end of the main dictionary section, as started at page 75)

After 1576 is a list of radicals,

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1582.gif

has what I assume is the original of 阝, 邑)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1581.gif

(1581 has your 見!! finally, and just before it 襾 which looks a lot like 西. I counted the ones before and came to 141 for 襾 and 142 for 見. hmm so not really sure, both of these are wrong!)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1585.gif

(1585 look like a radical index for characters ending page 1631, but not quite?)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1681.gif

(1681 and around is 字典 集中考正 - detailed textual criticism of characters, whatever that means...)

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1683.gif

(1683 is the last page)

襾 is 146 according to zdic. 見 it doesn't say.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_radical which agrees with the above.

And http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_dictionary for most of the dictionary guide (hmph, should have looked there first).

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/1128.gif

has the entry for 襾 and 西. I can't understand much of the definition / quotes / pronunciation information.

我头大了！

I ran across this page on Columbia University's web site. It has different versions of several radicals, including number 147. Maybe this has to do with different versions of the original dictionary?

http://www.columbia.edu/itc/ealac/sobelman/yic/radicals/index.html

James

Whoa! I thought this would be a simple matter of looking these up in some definitive source but looks like it is not straightforward. Thanks for all the research, ximeng! I'm going to take a look at this but am going offline for about a week first. I'll post again when I get back online.

Best I can come up with:
西 xī: "west (Kangxi radical 146)"
襾 yà: "cover; stopper; cork (Kangxi radical 146, variant)"
覀 yà: "cover; stopper; cork (Kangxi radical 146, variant 2)"
见/見 jiàn: "to see; to meet; to appear (to be sth.) (Kangxi radical 147)"

Wenlin says:
"The components 覀 and 襾 generally have different origins from 西 xī, though in traditional dictionaries they are treated as being the same."
and says Karlgren says 襾 is:
"Picture of a stopper, a cork; it is this ... and not 西 ... which is key 146 in Kāngxī"

Also, don't get 西 xī "west" confused with 酉 yǒu "wine".