How to Write 艽 (jiāo) — Meaning “remote wilderness; a medicinal herb”

Imagine a "nine" (九) hiding in tall grass (艹) — a remote wilderness where a rare medicinal herb grows. The number nine can also remind you that this character has five strokes but looks like a simple combination of grass and nine.

Write the grass radical 艹 first with two short vertical strokes, then write 九 below: start with a left-falling stroke (丿), then a horizontal bending hook (⺄). A common mistake is making the vertical strokes of 艹 too long — they should stay short so that 九 fits neatly underneath.

艹 is only a radical (grass) and never used alone as a character, while 艽 is a full character. 艺 (yì, meaning art or skill) has 乙 below instead of 九. Visually, 艽 has a squared bottom with a hook, while 艺 has a curved bottom without a hook.

艽 is very rare in everyday language, appearing mainly in the traditional Chinese medicine term 秦艽 (qín jiāo, Largeleaf Gentian root) and in classical literary phrases like 艽野 (jiāo yě, remote wilderness). It is not part of HSK vocabulary, so learners may encounter it only in specialized texts about herbs or classical poetry.

Common words containing 艽 include: 秦艽 (qín jiāo) — Largeleaf Gentian root; 艽野 (jiāo yě) — remote wilderness; 远艽 (yuǎn jiāo) — distant wilderness.