How to Write 徭 (yáo) — Meaning “Corvee labor (bound morpheme).”

Imagine a person (彳) being forced to walk carrying a heavy load like a clay pot (䍃 looks like a jar with a lid). Visualize the character as 'a worker marching with a clay pot on his back' — the pot represents the burden of unpaid government labor. This links the radical and the right side to the idea of compulsory service.

Pay attention to the right side 䍃: it starts with a claw-like stroke (爫) then a square box (缶), not a separate 爫 and 缶. The bottom of 䍃 has two vertical strokes inside the box, and the last stroke is a vertical line that extends down. A common mistake is making the right side too wide — keep the whole character narrow, with the 彳 radical taking about one-third of the width.

Unlike 徭, the character 得 (dé) has the radical 彳 but a right side made of 日 (sun) and 一寸 (one inch), meaning 'to obtain'. 徘 (pái) also uses 彳 but has 非 (non) on the right, meaning 'to pace back and forth'. In 徭, the right side is 䍃 (a phonetic component with a jar-like shape), which is unique and not used in the other two.

徭 is rarely used alone today; it appears almost exclusively in the literary or historical term 徭役 (yáo yì), which refers to compulsory labor service demanded by ancient Chinese governments from common people. This system was a major burden for farmers and is often mentioned in historical texts, poetry, and discussions of ancient social structure. In modern Chinese, you might encounter it when reading about the Qin or Han dynasties.

Common words containing 徭 include: 徭役 (yáo yì) — Corvee; compulsory labor service.; 徭役负担 (yáo yì fù dān) — The burden of corvee labor.; 征徭 (zhēng yáo) — corvée labor and taxes.