How to Write 葑 (fēng) — Meaning “turnip / aquatic plant”

Picture a turnip that someone has sealed (封) inside a patch of grass (艹). So imagine a sealed vegetable in the field — the grass on top reminds you it is a plant, and the sealed part helps you recall the sound fēng.

Start by writing the grass radical 艹 as two horizontal strokes with short verticals, then write 封 below. In 封, pay attention to the left side: write 土 (earth) first, then the right side 吋 (cun) with a dot. A common mistake is making the 艹 too narrow or forgetting the dot in 吋.

葑 (fēng) means turnip or aquatic plant, while 荷 (hé) means lotus and 荸 (bí) is part of "water chestnut" (荸荠). Visually, 葑 has 封 under the grass radical, 荷 has 何 (he) under 艹, and 荸 has 孛 (bèi) under 艹. Each has a different phonetic component and refers to a different plant.

葑 is rare today but appears in place names like 葑门 (Fēng Mén), a historic gate in Suzhou. It is also used in the term 葑田 (floating field), a traditional farming method where fields are made from aquatic plants. The word 葑菲 is a classical metaphor for something humble, like a simple turnip.

Common words containing 葑 include: 葑田 (fēng tián) — floating field (formed by aquatic plants); 葑门 (fēng mén) — Feng Gate (a gate in Suzhou); 葑菲 (fēng fēi) — turnip and radish (metaphor for humble things).