菽 (shū) · legumes; pulses (beans and peas)

Meanings

1 legumes; pulses (beans and peas)

Characters

菽

shū

legumes; beans

Examples

HSK 6

他菽麦不分，毫无常识。

Tā shūmài bùfēn, háowú chángshí.

He could not tell beans from wheat - utterly impractical.

HSK 7-9

中原有菽，小民采之。

Zhōngyuán yǒu shū, xiǎomín cǎi zhī.

In the central plains there are beans, and the common folk gather them.

Tips

history

菽 is the classical collective word for beans and pulses, one of the five staple grains of ancient China. It survives in set phrases like 菽水 (beans and water, meaning a humble but devoted way of caring for one's parents) and 菽麦不分 ('can't tell beans from wheat', i.e. clueless about everyday things).

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant

The grass radical on top, a form of 草. It marks 菽 as a plant word - beans are a crop - placing it with 花 (flower) and 茶 (tea).

phonetic

叔 shū

uncle

Supplies the sound. Standalone 叔 means a father's younger brother; here it gives the exact shū reading. Its own bean-picking origin makes it a fitting phonetic, but in modern use it contributes only the sound.