Meaning: life, give birth, real
Readings: いきる、いかす、いける、うまれる、うむ、おう、はえる、はやす、き、なま、セイ、ショウ
Components: well, there is no official radical for this character, but Heisig suggests remembering strokes #2-5 as something like “growing” (as in a plant). I think of it as something like a corn stalk, as in this image:
Photo courtesy of USDA
My hack: I think of the first stroke as a drop of water, which gives life to all things that grow.
