耒 (lěi): ancient wooden plough handle; p…

Meanings

1 ancient wooden plough handle; primitive tilling tool
2 (literary) farming implement, often paired with 耜 (sì, the share)

Characters

耒

lěi

ancient plough handle

Examples

古人用耒耜耕田。

Gǔrén yòng lěi sì gēngtián.

The ancients tilled fields with the lei and si ploughs.

神农氏发明了耒耜。

Shén nóng shì fāmíng le lěi sì.

Shennong is credited with inventing the lei and si tilling tools.

Tips

history

耒 names the bent wooden handle of the earliest Chinese ploughs; 耜 is the metal or stone share fitted to its tip. The compound 耒耜 (lěisì) is a stock literary phrase for 'farming tools'. Tradition credits the legendary emperor 神农 (Shennong) with their invention.

usage

Outside set phrases like 耒耜 the character is rare. As a radical it tags a small group of agricultural verbs: 耕 (plough), 耘 (weed), 耙 (harrow / rake), 耗 (consume / waste, originally exhaust through farming).

Components

pictograph

耒 lěi

wooden plough handle

耒 is a pictograph of an ancient plough — a curved wooden shaft with two prongs at the foot for breaking soil, gripped at the upper end. As its own indexing radical it lends "tilling, ploughing, farming" to 耕 plough, 耙 rake, 耘 weed, 耧 seed-drill.

Radical

Plough Kangxi #127

Small radical group with a tight semantic field — primitive ploughing and field labour. Productivity is modest: 耕, 耘, 耙, 耗 are the everyday compounds. Reliable meaning clue for agricultural verbs, though most learners only meet 耒 once they reach classical or specialised vocabulary.