禾 (hé): standing grain; cereal plant (e…

Meanings

1 standing grain; cereal plant (especially rice in classical usage)
2 (literary) grain still on the stalk before harvest

Characters

禾

hé

standing grain

Examples

秋天禾穗金黄。

Qiūtiān hé suì jīnhuáng.

In autumn the heads of grain turn golden.

锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土。

Chúhérìdāngwǔ, hàndīhéxiàtǔ.

Hoeing the grain at high noon, sweat drips onto the earth below the stalks.

Tips

culture

禾 is best known from the Tang poem 《悯农》 by Li Shen — 'Hoeing the grain at high noon...' is one of the first poems Chinese children memorise. In modern Chinese, 禾 is mostly a literary or radical character; everyday speech uses 稻 (rice plant) or 谷 (cereals).

history

Pictograph of a grain stalk with the head bent over from the weight of ripe ears. As a radical, 禾 reliably signals cereal-related meanings: 秋 (autumn), 稻 (rice), 种 (seed / plant), 秒 (second, originally a grain awn), 税 (tax, originally paid in grain).

Components

pictograph

禾 hé

growing grain; cereal plant

Pictograph of a stalk of grain — the drooping ripe head at the top (slanted stroke), the stem, leaves spreading sideways, roots below. One of the most productive Kangxi radicals (#115), heading the cereal-crop family: 秋 autumn, 种 to plant, 稻 rice-plant, 秀 fine-grain, 私 private (a grain hoard), 香 fragrant, 季 harvest-season.

Radical

Grain Kangxi #115

Highly productive radical for cereal crops, harvesting, and (by metonymy) measuring time and goods that were once paid in grain. Strong meaning clue: 秋, 种, 稻, 秒, 秤, 税, 私, 秘, 移, 秩, 程, 稳 all carry it on the left. One of the most reliable agricultural radicals.