溥 (pǔ) · broad; vast; widespread

Meanings

1 broad; vast; widespread
2 universal, = 普
3 Pǔ (surname; e.g. 溥仪, the last Qing emperor)

Characters

溥

pǔ

broad; widespread; surname

Examples

HSK 6

末代皇帝溥仪生于1906年。

Mò dài huángdì Pǔyí shēngyú yī jiǔ líng liù nián.

The last emperor Puyi was born in 1906.

HSK 7-9

溥天之下，莫非王土。

Pǔ tiān zhīxià, mòfēi wáng tǔ.

Throughout all under heaven, none is not the king's land. (Book of Songs)

Tips

history

Phono-semantic compound: 氵 (water) gives the imagery of something flowing wide, 尃 (fū, 'spread out') gives both sound and the 'broadcast widely' sense. The classical reading was 'water spreading out vastly', which generalised to 'broad, universal'. In literary texts 溥 is a near-synonym of 普.

culture

The most famous bearer is 爱新觉罗·溥仪 (Aisin-Gioro Puyi, 1906-1967), the last emperor of the Qing dynasty and protagonist of Bertolucci's film The Last Emperor. The Aisin-Gioro royal house used 溥 as a generation name - Puyi's brothers were 溥杰, 溥任, 溥伟.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water (radical form)

Three-drop water radical on the left, the indexing radical. Lends the imagery of water spreading out across a flat plain that motivates the 'broad, universal' sense. Same radical heads 河, 海, 湖, 流, 浪, 浦, where each draws its meaning from a property of water.

phonetic

尃 fū

to spread out (archaic)

Right side is 尃, archaic form of 敷 'to spread, distribute'. Supplies the sound (fū to pǔ, common bilabial drift in this phonetic family) and reinforces meaning: water + spreading = broad. The same stem feeds 博, 搏, 薄, 缚, 傅, all share the 'spread out / wide-reaching' flavour.