How to Write 屰 (nì) — Meaning “to go against; rebellious”

Imagine the character as a person doing a handstand: the top part (像屮) represents hands on the ground, and the bottom strokes are legs pointing upward, defying gravity. This image of going against the normal position will help you recall the meaning of "rebellious."

The stroke order is: left-falling, horizontal, vertical, left-falling, dot, then right-falling (6 strokes total). A common mistake is making the bottom right-falling stroke too short or forgetting the small dot above it; keep the dot centered and the final stroke slightly extended to the right.

屯 (tún, meaning "to store up" or "village") has a horizontal line through its sprout-like top and a curved hook at the bottom, while 屰 has a dot and a straight right-falling stroke. Additionally, 屯 is a common HSK character, whereas 屰 is rare and mostly used in classical or radical contexts.

屰 is not used in everyday modern Chinese; it appears mainly in technical terms like 屰部 (the name of this radical) or in literary compounds such as 屰行 (to go against the flow). Culturally, 屰 is one of the 214 Kangxi radicals but contains very few characters, reflecting its niche role in Chinese writing.

Common words containing 屰 include: 屰部 (nì bù) — the 'Ni' radical; 屰行 (nì xíng) — to go against the flow; to move in reverse; 屰违 (nì wéi) — to disobey; to violate.