Oracle-bone scholars say the graph depicts a needle threading two shells.
Tips
history
毌 is the ancestor of the modern character 贯 ('to pierce through; string of coins'). The oracle-bone form pictures a long object threading two square cowrie shells - a string of money. Later writers added 贝 (cowrie / money) below to clarify the cash meaning, giving the modern 贯. The bare 毌 survives only as a component element.
mistakes
Don't confuse 毌 (4 strokes, two horizontal bars piercing a sealed enclosure) with 母 (mother, 5 strokes, an enclosure with two dots inside) - they look similar in some fonts but are unrelated. Don't confuse with 毋 (do not), which is again a different graph with a different reading.
register
Archaic - definitions follow classical attestation only. Modern Chinese always uses 贯. You'll see 毌 in paleographic studies and as a structural component.
Components
pictograph
毌guàn
to pierce through
Pictograph: two horizontal bars (the threaded objects, originally cowrie shells) pierced by a vertical stroke (the string or needle). Indexed under Kangxi #80 毋 by tradition - graphic-shape match - even though etymologically the 'do not' character 毋 and the 'pierce through' character 毌 come from different oracle-bone sources.
Filed under radical 毋 (wú, #80) by convention. 毋 is not a separate component in 毌, so no strokes are highlighted.
