How to Write 狁 (yǔn) — Meaning “Yun (referring to an ancient nomadic tribe).”

Imagine a pack of wild dogs (犭) chasing a nomadic tribe, and the tribe members yell "Yun! Yun!" (允) to scare them away. The right part 允 looks like a person running with arms outstretched. This associates the animal radical and the sound yǔn with the ancient tribe meaning.

The left radical 犭 is written with three strokes: first a left-falling stroke, then a horizontal hook, and finally a short left-falling stroke. The right part 允 has five strokes: start with a left-falling stroke, then a horizontal hook, a left-falling, and two dots (the top dot is slightly smaller). Common mistakes include making the right part too wide or forgetting the hook on the first stroke of 允.

狁 (yǔn) means an ancient tribe, while 犯 (fàn) means to violate or commit a crime and has a different right part (卩). 犰 (qiú) is an uncommon character meaning a mythical animal and has the radical 犭 with a right part 九. Visually, 狁's right side is 允, 犯's is 卩, and 犰's is 九. Each has a distinct meaning and pronunciation.

狁 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese and appears almost exclusively in the historical term 猃狁 (Xiǎn yǔn), which refers to an ancient nomadic tribe from the Zhou dynasty. It is mainly encountered in history books or classical texts about ancient China. Learners may not need to memorize it for daily conversation but it's useful for understanding historical names.

Common words containing 狁 include: 猃狁 (xiǎn yǔn) — Xianyun (an ancient nomadic tribe); 狁字 (yǔn zì) — The character '狁'.; 狁部 (yǔn bù) — The '狁' radical section..