How to Write 罹 (lí) — Meaning “To suffer from; to meet with misfortune”

Picture a net (罒) falling on a person who is worrying (惟) — now they are caught in a disaster. The bottom part 惟 looks like a heart (忄) with a bird (隹), so imagine a bird flying into a net and suffering harm. This visual helps link the shape to the meaning of suffering or misfortune.

Start with the net radical 罒: draw the outer frame, then the two vertical strokes inside. The bottom part 惟 has 11 strokes; be careful to write the left side as 忄 (vertical stroke, then left dot, right dot) not as a horizontal line. Common mistake is making the net too wide or forgetting the third horizontal stroke in 隹 (the bird component). Keep the top net narrow and centered over the bottom part.

罹 (lí, suffer) has the phonetic 惟 underneath, while 罱 (nǎn, a type of fishing net) uses 南 (nán) and 罴 (pí, brown bear) uses 罷 (bà) simplified. Visually, 罹's bottom part has a vertical heart (忄) on the left and a bird (隹) on the right; 罱 has 南 which looks like a complex shape with a cross, and 罴 has 罷 with a 去 and 能. In usage, 罹 is about suffering, while the others refer to nets or animals.

罹 is a formal character used in news and medical reports, such as 罹患癌症 (suffer from cancer) or 罹难 (die in an accident). It carries a grave tone and is not used in casual conversation — you would use 得病 instead of 罹病 in daily speech. Culturally, it appears in historical texts describing tragic events, emphasizing the victim's passive misfortune.

Common words containing 罹 include: 罹患 (lí huàn) — To suffer from (a disease); 罹难 (lí nàn) — To perish in an accident; to be a victim; 罹病 (lí bìng) — To fall ill; to contract a disease.