How to Write 屣 (xǐ) — Meaning “slippers; shoes (literary)”

Imagine a corpse (尸) wearing slippers and walking (徒) around — that's a silly, memorable image. The slippers are so worn out that the corpse literally "threw them away" (like 弃如脱屣).

Write 尸 first (3 strokes: horizontal, horizontal, vertical), then 徒 (11 strokes) which starts with two 彳 on the left and 走 on the right. A common mistake is making the left side too wide — keep 尸 narrow and the lower part balanced horizontally.

属 (shǔ) means "belong" or "category" and has a different lower part (禺). 屡 (lǚ) means "repeatedly" and has a different component (娄). 屣 specifically refers to slippers or shoes, while the others have unrelated meanings — they share the radical 尸 but not the footware sense.

屣 is a literary character, rarely used alone in daily speech, but appears in classical idioms like 倒屣相迎 (to welcome a guest so eagerly you put your slippers on backwards). Another idiom 弃如脱屣 means to discard something as worthless, like throwing away old slippers. You might encounter it in formal writing or historical texts.

Common words containing 屣 include: 倒屣相迎 (dào xǐ xiāng yíng) — To welcome a guest with great enthusiasm (literally: putting on shoes backwards).; 屣履 (xǐ lǚ) — shoes; to wear shoes; 弃如脱屣 (qì rú tuō xǐ) — to cast away like old shoes; to discard as worthless.