滁 names a river and the city 滁州 in Anhui. The famous opening line of Ouyang Xiu's essay, 环滁皆山也 ('the land around Chu is all mountains'), made the place a fixture of classical Chinese learning.
Left is the three-drop water radical 氵, the side form of 水. It marks the character as a body of water — here the Chu River, from which the city takes its name.
Right matches 除, here purely for sound, giving the chú reading almost exactly. The same phonetic shape appears in 涂 (to smear).
In Pop Culture
醉翁亭记Zuìwēng Tíng Jì
Ouyang Xiu's Song-dynasty essay 'Record of the Old Drunkard's Pavilion', set in 滁州; its opening line about the mountains around Chu is memorised by Chinese students.
