Sinograph Addenda · Signs

木tree · mù · tree; wood

tree

Where it comes from

A trunk with branches reaching up and roots reaching down. As a component it is the busiest of the course’s pictures: mark its base and you have 本root · běn · root, trunk; the fundamental the root, its top and you have 末tip · mò · tip, branch-end; the incidental the tip, let it lend its sound and you have 沐washing · mù · to wash the hair; to bathe in. Taught in the pictures chapter.

How to remember it

A child’s drawing of a tree — arms up for branches, legs down for roots. Half of chapter 04 grows on it.

In the wild