How to Write 袱 (fú) — Meaning “Cloth wrap; bundle”

Imagine a cloth bundle (包袱) that you carry on your back, and the right part 伏 looks like a person (亻) bending under a heavy dog (犬) — the weight becomes your burden. This connects the meaning of "cloth wrap" to the idea of a burden, which is a common use of 包袱.

Write the left radical 衤 first: dot, horizontal, left-falling, vertical, right-falling (5 strokes). Then write the right part 伏: start with the person radical 亻 (left-falling, vertical), then 犬 (horizontal, left-falling, right-falling, dot) — 6 strokes, total 11. A common mistake is making the right part too wide or placing the final dot too low; keep the left side narrow and the right side balanced.

All three share the 衤 radical, but 衲 (nà) has the component 内 (inside) and means to mend or a Buddhist patchwork robe. 衹 (zhǐ) contains 氏 and is a rare character used for "only" in historical texts. In contrast, 袱 specifically means a cloth wrapper or a burden, and its right side 伏 gives the sound fú.

The most common usage is in the word 包袱 (bāo fú), meaning both a physical cloth bundle and a mental burden (e.g., 思想包袱 means "ideological burden"). In Chinese comedy (相声 xiàngsheng), 抖包袱 (dǒu bāo fú) is the term for revealing a punchline or disclosing a secret. The character 袱 itself is not used alone in modern speech.

Common words containing 袱 include: 包袱 (bāo fú) — burden; cloth wrapper; 抖包袱 (dǒu bāo fú) — to reveal a punchline; to disclose a secret; 袱子 (fú zi) — Cloth bundle wrap.