榕 (róng): banyan tree (Ficus microcarpa)

Measure Word

一棵榕树 kē

Meanings

1 banyan tree (Ficus microcarpa)
2 Chinese banyan
3 abbreviation for Fuzhou city

Characters

榕

róng

banyan tree

Examples

HSK 4

广场上有一棵百年老榕。

Guǎngchǎng shàng yǒu yī kē bǎinián lǎo róng.

There is a hundred-year-old banyan tree in the square.

HSK 7-9

福州又称榕城。

Fúzhōu yòuchēng Róng chéng.

Fuzhou is also called 'Banyan City.'

Tips

culture

Fuzhou's nickname 榕城 ('Banyan City') dates to the Northern Song, when prefect 张伯玉 ordered citywide banyan planting in 1073. The trees thrived, and Fuzhou's single-character abbreviation 榕 stuck for nearly a millennium.

memory

木 (wood/tree) radical + 容 ('to contain'). Banyans famously grow aerial roots that drop down and form pillars, so eventually one tree contains an entire grove. The 容 phonetic doubles as a hint to that 'containing' nature.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical (Kangxi #75), a pictograph of a tree with trunk, branches, and roots. Indexes 榕 as a kind of tree. Same radical anchors most species names: 松 pine, 柏 cypress, 桃 peach, 柳 willow, 桂 osmanthus. Tells the reader instantly that 榕 names a tree.

phonetic

容 róng

contain; tolerate

Right 容 supplies the sound, róng unchanged. 容 originally pictured a roof 宀 covering 谷 (a valley containing things) for 'contain, hold inside'. Some readers sense a faint echo: the banyan with its broad spreading canopy contains an entire grove of shelter under one tree. Fuzhou (福州) is nicknamed 榕城 'Banyan City' for the trees planted city-wide during the Song dynasty.