How to Write 魖 (xū) — Meaning “a legendary ghost of depletion”

Imagine a ghost that looks like a hollow, empty sack — it wanders around and sucks the life out of everything, leaving only emptiness. The left side 鬼 is the ghost, and the right side 虚 looks like a void (think of the word 'void' as similar to '虚'), so you can remember it as the 'void ghost'.

Pay attention to the left radical 鬼: the top part (甶) has a short diagonal stroke, and the bottom hook (儿) must curve properly. On the right, 虚 has a tiger head (虍) on top and a hill (丘) below; be careful not to confuse the bottom component with 业 or other shapes. The overall character is wide, so keep the left and right balanced.

Both share the 鬼 radical, but 魖 uses 虚 (empty) on the right, referring to a ghost of depletion or emptiness, while 魔 uses 麻 (hemp) and means a demon or evil spirit. Visually, 魖's right side is more angular and contains the 'hill' shape (丘), whereas 魔's right side has the scattered strokes of 麻. In usage, 魖 is extremely rare and literary, while 魔 is common.

魖 is almost never used in daily conversation; it appears only in classical literature or poetic descriptions of eerie, ghostly phenomena, such as in the word 魖风 (eerie wind). Culturally, it may refer to a specific legendary ghost that causes loss or depletion, but most modern Chinese speakers would not recognize this character without special study.

Common words containing 魖 include: 魖魖 (xū xū) — ghostly / shadowy / eerie; 魖耗 (xū hào) — Xuhao (a legendary ghost that causes loss); 魖风 (xū fēng) — eerie wind / ghostly wind.