阜 (fù): (literary) earthen mound; hill

Meanings

1 (literary) earthen mound; hill
2 (literary) abundant; plentiful
3 (in place names) Fù

Characters

阜

fù

mound; abundant

Examples

如山如阜，如冈如陵。

Rú shān rú fù, rú gāng rú líng.

Like mountains, like mounds, like ridges, like hills. (Shijing)

曲阜是孔子的故乡。

Qū fù shì Kǒngzǐ de gùxiāng.

Qufu is Confucius's hometown.

Tips

history

阜 is an oracle-bone pictograph of stepped earth platforms — a stack of mounds carved into a hillside. Modern Chinese has retired it from everyday speech; it survives chiefly in place names (曲阜 Qūfù, Confucius's hometown) and as the left-side variant 阝 in characters tied to terrain and elevation.

memory

When you see 阝 on the LEFT of a character, that's 阜 (mound) — meaning hills, slopes, walls, defenses: 阳 (sun/yang side of a hill), 阴 (yin/shaded side), 院 (courtyard), 防 (defend, dam), 险 (steep/dangerous), 阶 (steps). Right-side 阝 is the unrelated 邑 radical.

Components

pictograph

阜 fù

earthen mound; hill

Originally drawn as a stack of terraced mounds — a sketch of the stepped earthen banks that lined ancient North China. 阜 is Kangxi radical 170; in compounds it contracts to 阝 on the left side (as in 陆, 阵, 院). Standalone it keeps the full eight-stroke silhouette and is not analysable into smaller parts.

Radical

Mound Kangxi #170

The mound/hill radical. A pictograph of stacked earthen platforms — terraced hillsides. Hugely productive in terrain, defense, and elevation vocabulary, almost always appearing as the left-side variant 阝: 阳, 阴, 院, 防, 险, 阶, 阻, 阻, 限. Visually identical to right-side 阝 (邑) but with a completely different etymology and meaning.