攴 (pū): to tap; to strike lightly (clas…

Meanings

1 to tap; to strike lightly (classical)
2 Kangxi radical #66

Characters

Tips

history

攴 is a pictograph of a hand holding a stick to administer a light tap — the original action verb behind the ideas of teaching, correcting, and governing in early Chinese. In modern script the form has shifted to 攵, the four-stroke 'rap' radical you see on the right of 教, 改, and 故.

mistakes

Don't confuse 攴 with 支 (zhī, branch — Kangxi #65). 攴 has a horizontal-and-down hand on top, while 支 starts with the cross-shaped half of 竹.

Components

semantic

卜 bǔ

divination crack; rod

Top piece — drawn as the stick or rod held in the hand below. Originally this was the schematic upper-stroke of a striking tool; only later did the shape come to resemble the divination character 卜. In 攴 it gives the implement that does the tapping.

semantic

又 yòu

right hand

Bottom — pictograph of a right hand with three fingers stretched out. Combined with the stick above it gives the compound ideograph reading: a hand wielding a rod to tap or strike lightly. From this picture comes both the verb 'to tap' and the Kangxi-66 radical, which in compound chars is almost always written in its side form 攵.

Radical

Rap Kangxi #66

Pictograph of a hand wielding a small rod to strike or correct. Highly productive — its modern variant 攵 sits on the right of dozens of common characters about action, governance, or teaching: 教 (teach), 改 (alter), 政 (government), 故 (cause), 救 (rescue), 敏 (agile).

Forms

攴 pū

Default 2 characters

攵 fǎnwén

Right 27 characters