How to Write 裔 (yì) — Meaning “Descendants; borderland”

Picture a long coat (衣) with a decorative border at the bottom that has many small figures hanging from it, representing descendants. The bottom part looks like a family tree with a vertical line connecting generations.

Write the top part as the clothing radical 衣: dot, horizontal hook, vertical, left-falling stroke, then right-falling stroke. Then draw the bottom part: vertical line down, horizontal fold to the right, another vertical, horizontal fold, and finally a horizontal bottom line. A common mistake is making the bottom part too narrow or forgetting the central vertical line that goes through the middle.

All three have the 衣 radical, but the bottom parts differ. 裔 has a bottom part that looks like a box with a vertical line through it (like 冏). 袈 has 加 below (a mouth and a power component), and 袋 has 代 below (a person with a diagonal stroke). Meaning-wise, 裔 refers to descendants or borderland, while 袈 is used in 袈裟 (Buddhist robe), and 袋 means bag or pouch.

裔 is most commonly seen in words like 华裔 (huá yì, person of Chinese descent) and 后裔 (hòu yì, descendant). It is a formal character often used in writing about genealogy, ethnicity, or history. Culturally, 华裔 is a respectful term for overseas Chinese, highlighting their ancestral roots.

Common words containing 裔 include: 华裔 (huá yì) — person of Chinese descent; 后裔 (hòu yì) — descendant; offspring; 裔孙 (yì sūn) — Remote descendants.