釜 (fǔ): cauldron

Measure Word

一口釜 kǒu

Meanings

1 cauldron
2 kettle (ancient)
3 ancient cooking vessel
4 an ancient unit of dry measure

Characters

釜

fǔ

cauldron; ancient cooking vessel

Examples

煮豆燃豆萁，豆在釜中泣。

Zhǔ dòu rán dòu qí, dòu zài fǔ zhōng qì.

Boiling beans by burning beanstalks, the beans weep inside the cauldron.

釜底抽薪是一个常用的成语。

Fǔdǐchōuxīn shì yīgè cháng yòng de chéngyǔ.

Fudichouxin (taking the firewood out from under the cauldron) is a common idiom.

Tips

history

釜 names a round-bottomed iron or bronze cooking pot of the Han dynasty, set over a 灶 (stove). It survives in 釜底抽薪 (fǔ dǐ chōu xīn, 'pull the firewood out from under the pot' — solve a problem at its root) and the famous 釜中泣 line from Cao Zhi's 七步诗 (Seven-Step Poem).

memory

釜 sits on the 金 (metal) radical, signalling its identity as a metal vessel — though early ones were bronze and pottery, later ones iron.