We walked through the garden bathed in spring breeze.
Tips
history
Ancient Chinese had a precise word for washing each body part. Today these distinctions have faded; 沐 mostly survives in compounds like 沐浴 (mùyù, 'bathe') and the literary phrase 沐恩 (mù'ēn, 'to receive grace').
memory
氵 (water radical) + 木 (mù, 'tree' - also the phonetic). Picture water running over tree roots - a tree bathing. The 木 gives both meaning hint and the reading.
氵 is left-side water and gives 沐 its core image - pouring or splashing water over the body to wash. Same radical heads 洗, 浴, 澡 - the full "washing" lexicon.
木 gives the sound mù exactly, same tone. Pure phonetic; the tree meaning has no role. Same phonetic in 牧 mù (herd), 目 mù (eye) - all sharing the -ù ending in old Chinese readings.
