How to Write 莆 (pú) — Meaning “Putian (place name prefix)”

Picture a grassy field (艹) in a city called Putian, where a man named 甫 (fǔ) is weaving a mat. The image of grass and a person making something useful helps link the components to the character's meaning as a place name. Say "Putian grass mat" to solidify the connection.

Write the grass radical 艹 with two horizontal strokes, then drop the vertical stroke down through the middle. For the lower part 甫, start with a horizontal stroke, then a short left-falling stroke, followed by a vertical stroke — make sure the vertical line crosses the horizontal cleanly. A common mistake is writing 甫 too narrow or forgetting the little dot inside 甫 (which is actually a short horizontal stroke).

While 莆 has the grass radical and is used in place names like 莆田, 兹 (zī) means 'now' or 'this' and lacks the grass radical entirely — it has a different top (two points above 玄). 苑 (yuàn) means 'garden' or 'park' and uses the same grass radical but has a different lower component (夗 instead of 甫). Visually, 莆 has a clear 甫 bottom, while 苑 has a curved lower part like 夗.

莆 is almost exclusively used as a prefix in the place name 莆田 (Pútián), a city in Fujian Province known for its culture and industry. It also appears in 莆仙 (Púxiān) to refer to the region's dialect and opera tradition. You will rarely see this character outside of these place-related contexts, so learning it is mainly for reading Chinese geography.

Common words containing 莆 include: 莆田 (pú tián) — Putian (a city in Fujian); 莆仙 (pú xiān) — Puxian (region in Fujian); 莆草 (pú cǎo) — A type of grass used for weaving mats.