How to Write 尸 (shī) — Meaning “corpse; dead body”

Imagine the character looks like a person lying on their side with their knees slightly bent, like a dead body resting. The top horizontal stroke is the person's shoulder, and the vertical strokes form the torso and bent legs. Visualizing this sleeping pose can help you recall that 尸 means 'corpse'.

Write 尸 with 3 strokes: first a horizontal stroke from left to right, then a left-falling diagonal, and finally a short horizontal stroke inside. A common mistake is making the top horizontal too short or the left diagonal too vertical; the character should be slightly squat and balanced. Keep the internal horizontal stroke smaller than the top one.

尸 appears mainly in words for dead bodies like 尸体 (shītǐ, corpse) and 僵尸 (jiāngshī, zombie). In Chinese folklore, 僵尸 refers to a hopping vampire often seen in movies and legends. Note that 尸 by itself is rarely used alone; it always combines with other characters to form complete words.

Common words containing 尸 include: 尸体 (shī tǐ) — corpse; dead body; 僵尸 (jiāng shī) — zombie / hopping vampire; 尸首 (shī shǒu) — corpse; remains.