系 is a compound ideograph representing a hand holding two strands of silk. In bronze scripts, it depicts a hand holding three strands of silk. In seal and regular scripts, two strands of silk is changed to one strand and the form of hand 爪 is changed to丿, which means “tie or knot”
The character 系 mainly serves as a semantic component to form other characters.
Characters formed by the semantic component 系
| 6 | 糸 | mì | 7 | 系 | jì,xì |
| 10 | 紧 | jǐn | 10 | 素 | sù |
| 10 | 索 | suǒ | 10 | 紊 | wěn |
| 10 | 紥 | zhā | 11 | 累 | léi,lèi,lěi |
| 11 | 紮 | zhā | 12 | 絜 | jié,xié |
| 12 | 絮 | xù | 12 | 絷 | zhí |
| 12 | 紫 | zǐ | 12 | 絛 | tāo |
| 12 | 絭 | juàn | 12 | 絫 | lěi |
| 13 | 綤 | shào | 13 | 綔 | hù |
| 14 | 綦 | qí | 14 | 綮 | qǐ,qìng |
| 14 | 緊 | jǐn | 14 | 緐 | fán |
| 15 | 緜 | mián | 15 | 緳 | xié |
| 16 | 縢 | téng | 16 | 縣 | xiàn |
| 16 | 縏 | pán | 16 | 縈 | yíng |
| 17 | 繁 | fán,pó | 17 | 縻 | mí |
| 17 | 繇 | yáo,yóu,zhòu | 17 | 繄 | yī |
| 17 | 縶 | zhí | 17 | 繋 | jì |
| 17 | 繤 | zuǎn | 18 | 繠 | ruǐ |
| 18 | 繛 | chuō | 19 | 繴 | bì |
| 19 | 繫 | xì | 20 | 纂 | zuǎn |
| 21 | 纇 | lèi | 21 | 纍 | léi |
| 24 | 纛 | dào |
The character 系 also serves as a phonetic component to form few characters.
Characters formed by the phonetic component 系
鲧、喺、虆、銯
See also the Component 丝
You can’t miss out the component 兹 too.