竹 (zhú) · bamboo

Meanings

1 bamboo

Examples

HSK 3

大熊猫最爱吃竹子。

Dàxióngmāo zuì ài chī zhúzi.

Pandas love eating bamboo.

HSK 4

屋子后面有一片小竹林。

Wūzi hòumiàn yǒu yī piàn xiǎo zhúlín.

There is a small bamboo grove behind the house.

Tips

memory

Pictograph of bamboo leaves - ⺮ is the radical form on top of characters.

Components

pictograph

竹 zhú

bamboo

Single self-component - 竹 is itself a Kangxi radical and a pure pictograph, drawing two facing bamboo stalks each with leaves drooping. Not decomposable into independent sub-pieces; the two mirrored halves are stylised leaf-and-stem shapes, not free-standing characters. When 竹 appears at the top of a compound it compresses into the variant ⺮.

Radical

Bamboo Kangxi #118

Extremely productive, and almost always appears as the top variant ⺮ (zhúzìtóu). Tags everything once made of bamboo: writing tools (笔 brush, 籍 register), counting and measuring (算 calculate, 答 answer, 等 wait/grade), tubes and pipes (管, 筒), musical instruments (笛, 箫), furniture and baskets (椅, 篮, though 椅 actually uses wood). One of the strongest meaning clues in the script.