How to Write 缬 (xié) — Meaning “Patterned silk; tie-dyeing; knot”

Picture a piece of silk (纟) that you tie many knots (like the 颉 shape) before dipping it in dye. When you untie them, beautiful patterns appear – that is 缬. The right side 颉 even looks like a twisted knot with a head (页) on top.

Keep the left silk radical narrow and write it in three strokes: 撇折, 撇折, 提. The right side 颉 has two parts: 吉 on the left (6 strokes) and 页 on the right (6 strokes) – make sure the bottom of 页 is level with 吉. A common mistake is to make the right side too wide, so balance both halves.

缬 means patterned silk or tie-dyeing, while 缙 (jìn) means red silk or to advance (right side 晋). 缚 (fù) means to tie up or bind (right side 尃). Visually, 缬 uses 颉 on the right, 缙 uses 晋, and 缚 uses 尃 – so focus on the different right components.

This character appears in words like 染缬 and 结缬, both referring to tie-dyeing techniques. It is also found in 缬草 (valerian herb, a plant name). Culturally, 缬 connects to the ancient art of 扎染 (zā rǎn), a traditional Chinese resist-dye craft where knots create patterns on silk.

Common words containing 缬 include: 缬草 (xié cǎo) — Valerian (herb); 染缬 (rǎn xié) — Tie-dyeing or patterned dyeing.; 结缬 (jié xié) — Tie-dyeing..