How to Write 薤 (xiè) — Meaning “Chinese onion”

Imagine a 'grass' (艹) growing above a 'leek' (韭) that is so old it has a 'bad' (歹) smell — that's the Chinese onion. Alternatively, think of 'xie' (薤) as the 'sigh' (xiè) you make when peeling a strong onion.

This character has 16 strokes; write the top 艹 first (two crosses), then the middle 韭 (starting with the left vertical, then the three horizontal strokes and the right vertical), and finally the bottom 歹 (horizontal, then the diagonal stroke, and the last dot). A common mistake is to write 韭 with too few strokes or to put the 歹 on the left instead of underneath.

蒟 (jǔ) and 蒻 (ruò) both have the grass radical, but 薤 specifically means Chinese onion while 蒟 refers to betel pepper and 蒻 means soft rush or tender. Visually, 薤 contains 韭 (leek) inside, while 蒟 has 句 (sentence) and 蒻 has 弱 (weak) below, so their bottom parts are completely different.

薤 is not common in daily speech but appears in traditional medicine names like 薤白 (xiè bái, macrostem onion bulb) and in literary phrases like 薤露 (xiè lù), which poetically compares dew on scallion leaves to the briefness of life. It is also used in some regional vegetable names, such as 薤菜 for Chinese onion.

Common words containing 薤 include: 薤白 (xiè bái) — Macrostem onion; 薤菜 (xiè cài) — Chinese onion (vegetable); 薤露 (xiè lù) — Dew on the scallion (metaphor for brevity of life).