How to Write 壅 (yōng) — Meaning “block up”

Picture a farmer piling up earth (土) around the roots of a plant until it forms a crowded, blocked mound — that crowded feeling is like 雍. So you can remember: "Yong (雍) the earth (土) to block the way." This links the visual components to the meaning of blocking.

The character has 16 strokes and follows a left-right structure. Write the left radical 土 first (three strokes: horizontal, vertical, horizontal), then the right part 雍, which begins with a dot and a horizontal stroke, then the mouth, and finally the bird radical 隹. A common mistake is to make the right side too narrow, so keep the 隹 part balanced.

壅 (yōng) means "to block up" and has 土 on the left and 雍 on the right. 塲 (chǎng) is a variant of 場 and means "field" or "open space", with 土 on the left and 昜 on the right. 塾 (shú) means "private school" and has 孰 on top and 土 on the bottom. Their meanings and structures are clearly distinct.

壅 appears mainly in technical or literary contexts, such as agriculture (壅土, heaping soil around plant roots) and hydraulic engineering (壅水, backwater behind a dam). It is also used in formal writing for congestion (壅塞). You won't hear it in everyday conversation, but it is a precise term in specialized fields.

Common words containing 壅 include: 壅土 (yōng tǔ) — heap soil around roots; 壅塞 (yōng sè) — congest; 壅水 (yōng shuǐ) — backwater.