How to Write 殳 (shū) — Meaning “ancient bamboo weapon; a Chinese radical”

Imagine the character looks like a person holding a spear: the first stroke is the spear tip, the horizontal stroke is the crossguard, and the lower strokes form the handle. You can also think of the sound "shū" as similar to "shoo" — shooing someone away with a weapon.

The stroke order is: first a left-falling stroke (丿), then a horizontal stroke (一), next a horizontal fold (𠃍), and finally a right-falling stroke (捺). A common mistake is to make the last stroke too short or write it as a dot; it should be a long, sweeping right-falling stroke that gives the character balance.

殳书 (shū shū) refers to an ancient script style used on weapons. 执殳 (zhí shū) means "to hold a spear" and is used in classical texts to describe soldiers. 殳仗 (shū zhàng) refers to ceremonial weapons used in ancient rituals.

殳 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese; it appears mainly as a radical in other characters such as 段 (duàn) and 殷 (yīn). Culturally, it is one of the 214 Kangxi radicals and is important for understanding ancient weaponry and calligraphy inscriptions.

Common words containing 殳 include: 殳书 (shū shū) — ancient script style used on weapons; 执殳 (zhí shū) — to hold a spear; 殳仗 (shū zhàng) — ancient ceremonial weapons.