How to Write 簋 (guǐ) — Meaning “ancient food vessel”

Imagine a bamboo basket (竹) holding a bowl of rice (the bottom part looks like a bowl with a lid and a grain). You can also think of "Guǐ" sound like "gwee" and picture a ghost eating from this ancient bowl, but note the bottom is not 鬼.

Write the bamboo radical first, then the bottom part 皀 carefully: starting with a left-falling stroke, then a horizontal line, a dot, and lower components. A common mistake is confusing 皀 with 食 (food) or 艮 (mountain), but 皀 has a unique horizontal stroke and dot on top.

箴 (zhēn) has 咸 (salty) inside and means "admonish" or "needle"; 篁 (huáng) has 皇 (emperor) inside and means "bamboo grove". In 簋, the bottom is 皀, which looks like a food vessel, not a phonetic component like in the others.

The most common place is 簋街 (Guǐjiē), a famous food street in Beijing, also called Ghost Street. You may also see it in museum descriptions of ancient 青铜簋 (bronze gui vessels) or historical texts about Chinese ritual artifacts.

Common words containing 簋 include: 簋街 (guǐ jiē) — Guijie (Ghost Street in Beijing); 青铜簋 (qīng tóng guǐ) — Bronze Gui (a ritual food vessel); 簋碗 (guǐ wǎn) — gui bowl.