How to Write 疽 (jū) — Meaning “carbuncle”

Imagine the left radical 疒 looks like a sick person lying in bed, and the right side 且 resembles a swollen, box-shaped bump on the skin. So you can remember 疽 as "a sick person with a box-like carbuncle on their body."

Write the radical 疒 first: dot, horizontal, left-falling, dot, then a short horizontal or upward stroke (the last stroke of the radical is actually a horizontal stroke, but be careful to keep it narrow). Then write the right part 且: vertical, horizontal, vertical, horizontal, horizontal, and the final long horizontal. A common mistake is making the radical too wide or misaligning the bottom of 且 with the bottom of the radical.

疽 (jū) means a deep carbuncle or skin ulcer, while 疙 (gē) refers to a small bump or pimple, and 疚 (jiù) means remorse or guilt, unrelated to skin. Visually, the right side differs: 疽 uses 且, 疙 uses 乞, and 疚 uses 久. In usage, 疽 is medical and serious, whereas 疙 is more common for minor skin issues.

Today, 疽 appears mostly in medical or traditional Chinese medicine texts, often in the word 痈疽 (yōng jū) meaning carbuncle or skin ulcer. It is not used in everyday conversation but can be found in classical literature or health discussions about serious skin infections. Culturally, it may appear in idioms like 痈疽之疾 to emphasize a severe illness.

Common words containing 疽 include: 痈疽 (yōng jū) — skin ulcer; carbuncle; 疽毒 (jū dú) — carbuncle infection; 疽肿 (jū zhǒng) — carbuncle swelling.