How to Write 漓 (lí) — Meaning “Dripping / Li (river name)”

Imagine a dripping water drop (氵) falling off a "leaf" (imagine 离 as leaves separated from a branch) — the water drips down, making you think of "dripping wet." This visual links the water radical to the idea of dripping. For the Li River, picture the river with water dripping from the mountains into it.

Write the left radical 氵 first (three dots), then the right part 离: start with the top 亠, then the middle 口, and finally the bottom 禸 (a crossed pattern). Be careful not to make the right part too wide; the character should be balanced left-to-right. A common mistake is confusing the bottom of 离 with 禹 (yǔ) — note that 离 has 禸 (a curved stroke and a dot), not 冂 with extra strokes.

漓 (lí) uses the phonetic 离, while 涪 (fú) uses 咅 (pǒu) and means "to float" or is a place name. 涫 (guān) uses 官 and means "to boil" or "hot water." Visually, 漓 has the right side 离 with a top 亠 and a bottom 禸, whereas 涪 has 咅 (立+口) and 涫 has 官 (宀+㠯+口). Their meanings differ greatly: 漓 is about dripping or a river, not boiling or floating.

漓 is most commonly used in the place name 漓江 (Lí Jiāng), the Li River in Guangxi, famous for its beautiful karst scenery. It also appears in the word 淋漓 (lín lí), meaning "dripping wet" or "thorough," and in the expression 酣畅淋漓 (hān chàng lín lí), meaning "to one's heart's content" (often for artistic expression). Outside these contexts, 漓 is rare in daily conversation.

Common words containing 漓 include: 漓江 (lí jiāng) — Li River; 淋漓 (lín lí) — dripping wet; uninhibited (of writing or speech); 酣畅淋漓 (hān chàng lín lí) — to one's heart's content.