Du Fu spent several years writing poetry in Kuizhou.
Tips
culture
Two famous Kuis. (1) In 《山海经》夔 is a one-legged ox-shaped beast whose roar produced thunder. (2) In 《尚书》夔 is Emperor 舜's minister of music. Confucius later remarked 夔一足 ('one Kui is enough') — a pun on 'one-legged' and 'one of him suffices', meaning a single competent man is enough for the task.
history
Place-name 夔州 covered the strategic Three Gorges entrance, modern 奉节县 in Chongqing. 杜甫's late-period masterpieces 《秋兴八首》 and 《登高》 were written during his stay in Kuizhou (766-768).
Components
pictograph
夔Kuí
Kui (legendary beast / sage)
A 21-stroke graph showing a bestial figure: head (首) on top, an animal trunk in the middle, with hands and a single foot 夂 (the down-stepping foot radical, Kangxi #34) below. Indexed under 夂 — the foot signals the one-legged beast of legend. Not analyzable into independent recognisable components in the modern form.
Filed under radical 夊 (suī, #35) by convention. 夊 is not a separate component in 夔, so no strokes are highlighted.
In Pop Culture
夔州Kuízhōu
Kuizhou (old name for Fengjie)
Old prefecture at the head of the Three Gorges where 杜甫 wrote his late masterpieces — now 奉节县 in Chongqing.
