殳 (shū) · shu - an ancient pole weapon (classical)

Meanings

1 shu - an ancient pole weapon (classical)
2 Kangxi radical #79 - 'spear shaft'

Characters

Tips

history

殳 was a long, blunt pole weapon, sometimes hooked at one end, fixed to chariots in the Zhou dynasty. The Mao Commentary describes it as a twelve-foot bamboo shaft 'with no blade'. The character is a pictograph of a hand wielding such a staff.

usage

You will not meet 殳 in modern speech, but it sits inside many common characters as the right-side component meaning 'strike with a tool': 段 (section), 殷 (abundant), 殴 (beat), 毁 (destroy), 殿 (hall), 杀 (kill).

Components

pictograph

殳 shū

spear-shaft weapon (Kangxi radical #79)

Self-pictograph - depicts a long-handled pole-arm or bamboo staff weapon used in ancient warfare and ritual processions. 殳 is itself Kangxi radical #79, indexing weapon and striking-action characters like 段, 殴, 毁, 殿. The graph shows the weapon held in a hand below - pictorial unit, not decomposed.

Radical

Spear Shaft Kangxi #79

Pictograph of a hand gripping a long bladeless pole weapon. As an indexing radical it gathers characters where a stick or tool is used forcefully: 段, 殷, 毁, 殿, 殴. Never standalone in modern Chinese, but a reliable signal of 'striking action' on the right of a compound character.