How to Write 偬 (zǒng) — Meaning “Hurried / Busy”

Imagine a person (亻) running frantically because they are late, making a "zǒng" noise as they rush. The right side 怱 looks like a heart (心) under a hurried top, so picture a "person with a hurried heart."

Write the left radical 亻 tall and thin, then the right side 怱 starting with a dot on top, followed by 勹 and then 心. A common mistake is writing the 心 component without its hook stroke or placing the top dot too far right, making the character unbalanced.

Compared to 侮 (wǔ, to insult) which uses 每 on the right, and 侯 (hóu, marquis) which has 矢 (arrow), 偬 has 怱 on the right containing 心 (heart), giving it a meaning of haste. Visually, 偬 has a dot on top and a heart shape, while the others lack this heart component.

偬 is almost never used alone; it appears in literary compounds like 匆偬 (cōng zǒng), 忙偬 (máng zǒng), and 倥偬 (kōng zǒng), all meaning "hurried" or "busy." These words are formal or poetic, not common in daily conversation, and are not part of the HSK vocabulary.

Common words containing 偬 include: 匆偬 (cōng zǒng) — hurried and busy; 忙偬 (máng zǒng) — Busy / hurried; 倥偬 (kōng zǒng) — pressingly busy / urgent.