Not used independently in modern Chinese. It is the look-alike that learners must keep apart from 苟 (if; careless): 茍 has a 羊-style top with a vertical that touches, while 苟 carries the grass radical 艹. It survives only in old texts and as a graphic element in characters such as 敬 and 警.
register
Archaic and literary only; seen in etymology notes and old texts, never in speech.
Components
ideograph
茍jí
to admonish oneself; urgent
Treated as one indivisible old graph. The crouching upper element plus 口 below pictured a person urging caution on themselves; the modern shape no longer maps cleanly to parts, so it is read as a single self-standing glyph that lives on inside 敬.
No stroke data for 茍; the glyph shown is your device font, so component strokes can't be highlighted.
