guǐ
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 ancient round ritual food vessel with two or four handles (archaic)

Examples

HSK 7-9
Xīzhōu lǐzhì zhōng, dǐng hé guǐ yào àn gùdìng shùmù dāpèi shǐyòng.
In the Western Zhou ritual system, tripods and gui vessels were used in fixed combinations.

Tips

history
names a specific bronze or pottery vessel of the Shang and Zhou eras and is not a free word in modern Chinese - it appears only in archaeology, museums and classical ritual texts, often paired with . It stacks the bamboo radical ⺮ over and the vessel radical .
culture
Bronze held grain offerings; the number a noble could display (paired with ) was strictly fixed by rank under the Zhou ritual code.

Components

radical
mǐn
dish; vessel
The vessel radical at the base is the indexing radical and pictures the open container itself - the round bowl of the .
semantic
zhú
bamboo
The bamboo radical ⺮ on top reflects that early grain baskets of this type could be woven from bamboo before bronze versions were cast.
semantic
gěn
to stop; food element
The middle element evokes the cooked grain the vessel held; it sits between the bamboo cap and the dish below.

Stroke Order

guǐ