卜 (bǔ): to divine; to forecast

Meanings

1 to divine; to forecast
2 to select (a site)
3 (surname) Bu/Pu

Characters

卜

bǔ

to divine; to forecast

Examples

古人用龟甲来占卜。

Gǔrén yòng guī jiǎ lái zhānbǔ.

Ancient people used tortoise shells for divination.

生死未卜。

Shēngsǐwèibǔ.

Whether alive or dead is still unknown.

他的前途未卜。

Tā de qiántú wèi bǔ.

His future is uncertain.

Tips

history

卜 is one of the oldest Chinese characters — it depicts the cracks in heated oracle bones used for divination in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC). The vertical stroke is the bone, the short stroke is the crack.

usage

As a surname, 卜 is pronounced bǔ. It appears in the common word 萝卜 (luóbo, radish), where it's pronounced bo with a neutral tone.

Components

pictograph

卜 bǔ

to divine; foretell

Self-pictograph and Kangxi radical 25 in just two strokes. Depicts the crack pattern left on a heated tortoise shell or ox scapula during oracle-bone divination — the vertical break and the horizontal branching crack. Diviners read these splits to foretell fortune, the original meaning preserved in 占卜 (divination), 卜卦 (cast a hexagram). Atomic; not analyzable into sub-components.

Radical

Divination Kangxi #25

The 卜 radical, pictographic of cracks in a heated oracle bone. A small but historically loaded class — 卡, 占, 卢, 卦 — that ties characters back to Shang-dynasty divination practice. Low productivity in modern coining; mainly relevant for lookup of compound forms.