<ol>
<li><p><code>左阜右邑</code> (lit. left <em>fu</em> right <em>yi</em>) is a useful mnemonic to remind learners of Chinese that they are different radicals despite graphical similarity.</p>
</li>
<li><p><em>Usually</em> (but not always, see 5.) <code>阜</code> and <code>邑</code> (the 'ear') are the semantic component of the compound.</p>
</li>
<li><p>An example of <code>阜</code> (mound; mountain) as the semantic component: the character <code>陳/陣</code> originally means 'an array' (of soldiers in the battlefield).</p>
</li>
<li><p>Examples of <code>邑</code> (district; city) as the semantic component: <code>邯鄲</code> (Handan city, see the idiom <code>邯鄲學步</code>), <code>鄭</code> (the Zheng state during the Zhou dynasty), <code>邦</code> (city).</p>
</li>
<li><p>But this is NOT always true. In <code>鄭</code>, for instance, there is no connection between its original meaning (a state) and its modern meanings (e.g. <code>鄭重</code> 'solemn'). There may have been phonetic loan, which abolishes the semantic relevance of <code>邑</code>. The same goes for <code>邪</code> (evil) – we only know based on character composition that its original meaning could have well been the name of a place (hypothesised to be 琅邪), but that place should in no ways be connected with evilness.</p>
</li>
</ol>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T02:19:49.327Z
Thanks Parker. your explanation for 邪 is great with all exceptional words. I was learning the idiom “天真无邪 tiānzhēn-wúxié (of children) innocent and artless” . 无邪 not evil is clear. 天真 has 3 meanings innocent, art less, naive. I remembered this idiom some how few things not clear like how 天真 become art less? 无邪 Not evil is nearest to Innocent in this idiom? Can you also share your thoughts on this? (It might be separate question, but let me know if you want to add me as a separate question.thanks)
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T05:57:06.757Z
@user27485 This is a separate question and you may benefit from other's answers. You can raise a new question if you aren't satisfied with my following comment. // 'Artless' seems to be a synonym of 'innocent' here, and `天真` definitely is not related to its literal meaning. For simplicity, you may choose to remember that `天真` can be used in a positive light (褒義) - as in `小朋友天真無邪` ('Children are innocent / pure'), where `天真` and `無邪` are complementary; but also in a negative light (貶義) - as in `你太天真了` ('You're too naive').
L Parker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-09T10:23:45.807Z
左阜右邑 is nice! It is one of the sort of things I was asking about in 
https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31204/mnemonics-for-%e6%b1%89%e5%ad%97-examples-and-resources
goPlayerJuggler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T00:38:48.297Z
2021-04-06T06:00:06.677Z
2021-04-06T06:00:06.677Z
L Parker
<p>I highly advise against understanding Chinese characters in terms of <em>radicals</em>. The word <em>radical</em> (部首) is a specialised term that is only relevant to Chinese Character dictionaries, which organise Chinese characters under <em>section</em> (部) <em>headers</em> (首).</p>
<p>Chinese characters are actually just references to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme" rel="nofollow noreferrer">morphemes</a>, and each Chinese character can simply be thought of as being made up from one or more morpheme hints.</p>
<p>You may find the following two Q/A threads helpful:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/40462/besides-the-radical-what-meaning-does-the-rest-of-a-chinese-character-have-esp">Besides the radical, what meaning does the rest of a Chinese character have (especially when it was originally created)?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/38827/what-does-%E5%B0%94-really-mean">What does 尔 really mean?</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>The two completely different <strong>characters</strong> which now commonly both look like 「阝」 when found in other characters are 「邑」 and 「阜」. As part of other characters, their shapes can be traced to 「阝」 like in the following table:</p>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center;">時期</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">「邑」</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">「阜」</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty" rel="nofollow noreferrer">商</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">甲</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/pWSuc.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/pWSuc.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">福</a>36<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=7322&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">合集7322</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">甲<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/CRxCN.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/CRxCN.png" alt="" /></a><br>　</kbd><br><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="nofollow noreferrer">菁</a>3.1<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=10405&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">合集10405</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou" rel="nofollow noreferrer">西周</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">金</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/J5h7u.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/J5h7u.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>臣卿簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4115&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成3948</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">金 | <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8Z9gR.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8Z9gR.png" alt="陽" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>農卣<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5424&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成5424</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_and_Autumn_period" rel="nofollow noreferrer">春秋</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">金 | 楷<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/0IxRe.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/0IxRe.png" alt="郙" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>郙王劍<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5424&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成11611</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">金 | 楷<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/oPike.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/oPike.png" alt="敶" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>敶伯元匜<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10267&amp;jgwfl=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">集成10267</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period" rel="nofollow noreferrer">戰國</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楚</a>・<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Silk_Manuscript" rel="nofollow noreferrer">帛</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/3sdNm.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/3sdNm.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>2.2<br>子彈庫帛書丙篇</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">楚・<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips" rel="nofollow noreferrer">簡</a> | 楷　　<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VuGDw.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VuGDw.png" alt="陵" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>40<br>荊門包山竹簡</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"> </td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/hznAf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/hznAf.png" alt="阝" /></a><br>　</kbd></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/hznAf.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/hznAf.png" alt="阝" /></a><br>　</kbd></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>Notice how both 「邑」 and 「阜」 occurred on either the left or right side of a character;<sup>*</sup> the modern convention of interpreting 「阝」 on the left as 「阜」 and on the right as 「邑」 is only a convenient disambiguation mnemonic after both shapes have merged into the shape of 「阝」 as part of other characters; there was no such rule in earlier forms of characters.</p>
<p>Individually, of course, they still exist as distinct shapes, as demonstrated in the table below.</p>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center;">時期</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">「邑」</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">「阜」</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"> </td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">篆</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/IAULh.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/IAULh.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;file=77390&amp;page=85" rel="nofollow noreferrer">邑部</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi" rel="nofollow noreferrer">說文解字</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">篆<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/iOSC2.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/iOSC2.png" alt="" /></a><br>　</kbd><br><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;file=77392&amp;page=88" rel="nofollow noreferrer">部</a><br>說文解字</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Western_Han" rel="nofollow noreferrer">西漢</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">隸</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8zZsi.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8zZsi.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>博邑家鼎</td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">璽印</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/bjLUh.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/bjLUh.png" alt="" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>漢印文字徵</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Eastern_Han" rel="nofollow noreferrer">東漢</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">隸<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8X6rM.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8X6rM.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>陰面<br>孔宙碑</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">隸<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/OPhvG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/OPhvG.png" alt="阜" /></a><br>　</kbd><br>陰面<br>魯峻碑</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"> </td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="nofollow noreferrer">楷</a><br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/2ThCp.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2ThCp.png" alt="邑" /></a><br>　</kbd></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">楷<br><kbd><br><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/aWsrH.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/aWsrH.png" alt="阜" /></a><br>　</kbd></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>「邑」 originally depicted a <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=21830" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>kneeling person</em> 「卩」</a> outside of <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=3" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>city walls</em> 「丁」</a><sup>†</sup>, indicating the meaning <em>town, city, settlement</em>. It occurs in many characters to do with these meanings, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li>「都」 (<em>capital city</em>)</li>
<li>「鄰」 (<em>neighbour</em>)</li>
<li>「邦」 (<em>city-state</em> &gt; <em>nation</em>)</li>
<li>「郵」 (<em>postal system</em>)</li>
</ul>
<p>「阜」 originally depicted something like <em>a row of</em> <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=279" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>rocks</em> 「石」</a>, and is commonly used to denote characters to do with <em>hills/mountains</em> and <em>rows/arrays</em>. For example,</p>
<ul>
<li>「陵」 (<em>large hill</em> &gt; <em>burial place</em>)</li>
<li>「陰」／「陽」 (<em>north/south side of mountains</em>)</li>
<li>「隊」 (<em>team, group</em>, from <em>an array of people</em>)</li>
<li>「陣」 (<em>battle formation</em>; from <em>an array war chariots</em> <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=705" rel="nofollow noreferrer">「車」</a>).</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p><strong>Footnotes</strong></p>
<p><sub><sup>*</sup>「邑」 can even occur on the bottom of a character; see e.g. the <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=1211" rel="nofollow noreferrer">glyph evolution table of 「巷」</a>.<p></sub>
<sub><sup>†</sup> <em>City walls</em> is now written as 「城」 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Baxter%E2%80%93Sagart_(2014)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Baxter-Sagart OC</a>: <strong>/*[d]eŋ/</strong>). The meaning <em>fourth <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Stems" rel="nofollow noreferrer">heavenly stem</a></em> (<strong>/*tˤeŋ/</strong>) is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters" rel="nofollow noreferrer">phonetic loan</a>.</sub></p>
<hr />
<p><strong>References:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian" rel="nofollow noreferrer">小學堂字形演變</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">國學大師</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">郭沫若《甲骨文合集》</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="https://ctext.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">中國哲學書電子化計劃</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;res=77351" rel="nofollow noreferrer">宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T09:31:43.823Z
“I highly advise against understanding Chinese characters in terms of radicals”  well, it’s really 曲高和寡 lah  i think that, even in 20 years time, only a handful of users would understand your advice 
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T09:53:03.250Z
I just think we should learn to understand the writing and its relation to the language correctly, otherwise people will continually believe absolutely wrong and false things like “Simplified Chinese is easier than Traditional Chinese”, when in fact the opposite is true.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-07T04:19:13.383Z
I learnt the word bù today, I already have pèi in my flash card.

部 bù part, section, ministry, department 
陪 péi accompany ;     咅 pǒu to spit out, pooh, pah ; how to understand this? You may be correct that we should understand correctly, but I understood from earlier replies that the radical is same but depends on placement the meaning changes
user27485
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-07T04:29:23.540Z
@user27485 I'll emphasise again to not think of those in terms of *radicals*. Chinese SE welcomes questions on [tag:glyph-origin], so feel free to ask new questions for any character you have queries on (but make sure that there isn't an existing question that's already been asked, of course).
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-07T04:43:26.253Z
@user27485 dROOOze is right; you should be mindful whether you are over-analysing things based on just radicals. They are convenient (say when you’re looking up the dictionary) but not necessarily etymologically valid (or conducive to your learning).
L Parker
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-06T08:57:08.140Z
2021-04-06T09:03:22.480Z
2021-04-06T09:03:22.480Z
dROOOze
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_170" rel="nofollow noreferrer">阜</a>/ 阝 (Radical 170) - meaning: &quot;mound&quot; or &quot;dam&quot; - pinyin: /fu4/</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_163" rel="nofollow noreferrer">邑</a>/ 阝 (Radical 163) - meaning: &quot;city&quot; - pinyin: /yi4/</p>
<blockquote>
<p>阝 is a character used in Kangxi writing which serves as the combining form of two distinct radicals, distinguished by whether it is on the left or right of a character. It is the combining form of Radical 170 (阜) when used on the left of a character, as in 阪, and of Radical 163 (邑) when used on the right of a character, as in 部.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The two radicals 阜(170) and 邑(163) are simplified into the same form 阝(170; 163). The only difference is whether it is on the left or right of a character.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>When 阝 is on the left of a character (e.g. 阪, 陳, 陣) it is Radical 170</p>
</li>
<li><p>When 阝 is on the right of a character (e.g. 部, 邵, 郡) it is Radical 163</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.cidianwang.com/shuowenjiezi/fu9822.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">阜</a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/aewbj.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/aewbj.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.cidianwang.com/shuowenjiezi/yi3925.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">邑</a></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/GmiW1.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GmiW1.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-05T18:49:35.760Z
2021-04-05T19:12:09.887Z
2021-04-05T19:12:09.887Z
Tang Ho
<p>What are the differences between these two radicals? What is etymology? Both represent same character or different?</p>
<p>⻖yì mound, abundant R170
⻏ fú city R163</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-05T21:34:21.553Z
Radicals are dictionary section headers and have very little, if anything, to do with glyph origins or etymology.
dROOOze
<glyph-origin><radicals>
Radical 163 Vs 170
# Radical 163 Vs 170

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-04-05)

What are the differences between these two radicals? What is etymology? Both represent same character or different?

⻖yì mound, abundant R170
⻏ fú city R163

**Tags:** glyph-origin, radicals
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Radicals are dictionary section headers and have very little, if anything, to do with glyph origins or etymology.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-04-06. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

1. `左阜右邑` (lit. left *fu* right *yi*) is a useful mnemonic to remind learners of Chinese that they are different radicals despite graphical similarity.
2. *Usually* (but not always, see 5.) `阜` and `邑` (the 'ear') are the semantic component of the compound.
3. An example of `阜` (mound; mountain) as the semantic component: the character `陳/陣` originally means 'an array' (of soldiers in the battlefield).
4. Examples of `邑` (district; city) as the semantic component: `邯鄲` (Handan city, see the idiom `邯鄲學步`), `鄭` (the Zheng state during the Zhou dynasty), `邦` (city).
5. But this is NOT always true. In `鄭`, for instance, there is no connection between its original meaning (a state) and its modern meanings (e.g. `鄭重` 'solemn'). There may have been phonetic loan, which abolishes the semantic relevance of `邑`. The same goes for `邪` (evil) – we only know based on character composition that its original meaning could have well been the name of a place (hypothesised to be 琅邪), but that place should in no ways be connected with evilness.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks Parker. your explanation for 邪 is great with all exceptional words. I was learning the idiom “天真无邪 tiānzhēn-wúxié (of children) innocent and artless” . 无邪 not evil is clear. 天真 has 3 meanings innocent, art less, naive. I remembered this idiom some how few things not clear like how 天真 become art less? 无邪 Not evil is nearest to Innocent in this idiom? Can you also share your thoughts on this? (It might be separate question, but let me know if you want to add me as a separate question.thanks)  
> **username_2**: @user27485 This is a separate question and you may benefit from other's answers. You can raise a new question if you aren't satisfied with my following comment. // 'Artless' seems to be a synonym of 'innocent' here, and `天真` definitely is not related to its literal meaning. For simplicity, you may choose to remember that `天真` can be used in a positive light (褒義) - as in `小朋友天真無邪` ('Children are innocent / pure'), where `天真` and `無邪` are complementary; but also in a negative light (貶義) - as in `你太天真了` ('You're too naive').  
> **username_3**: 左阜右邑 is nice! It is one of the sort of things I was asking about in  https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/31204/mnemonics-for-%e6%b1%89%e5%ad%97-examples-and-resources  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2021-04-06. Score: 3

I highly advise against understanding Chinese characters in terms of *radicals*. The word *radical* (部首) is a specialised term that is only relevant to Chinese Character dictionaries, which organise Chinese characters under *section* (部) *headers* (首).

Chinese characters are actually just references to [morphemes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme), and each Chinese character can simply be thought of as being made up from one or more morpheme hints.

You may find the following two Q/A threads helpful:

* [Besides the radical, what meaning does the rest of a Chinese character have (especially when it was originally created)?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/40462/besides-the-radical-what-meaning-does-the-rest-of-a-chinese-character-have-esp)
* [What does 尔 really mean?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/38827/what-does-%E5%B0%94-really-mean)

---

The two completely different **characters** which now commonly both look like 「阝」 when found in other characters are 「邑」 and 「阜」. As part of other characters, their shapes can be traced to 「阝」 like in the following table:

| 時期 | 「邑」 | 「阜」 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [商](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty) | [甲](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script)  `邑` [福](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference)36 [合集7322](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&bh=7322&jgwfl=) | 甲  [菁](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference)3.1 [合集10405](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&bh=10405&jgwfl=) |
| [西周](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou) | [金](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions)  `邑` 臣卿簋 [集成3948](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4115&jgwfl=) | 金 | [楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script)  `陽` 農卣 [集成5424](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5424&jgwfl=) |
| [春秋](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_and_Autumn_period) | 金 | 楷  `郙` 郙王劍 [集成11611](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5424&jgwfl=) | 金 | 楷  `敶` 敶伯元匜 [集成10267](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10267&jgwfl=) |
| [戰國](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period) | [楚](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state))・[帛](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Silk_Manuscript)  `邑` 2.2 子彈庫帛書丙篇 | 楚・[簡](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_and_wooden_slips) | 楷　　  `陵` 40 荊門包山竹簡 |
|  | [楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script)  `阝` | [楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script)  `阝` |

Notice how both 「邑」 and 「阜」 occurred on either the left or right side of a character;\* the modern convention of interpreting 「阝」 on the left as 「阜」 and on the right as 「邑」 is only a convenient disambiguation mnemonic after both shapes have merged into the shape of 「阝」 as part of other characters; there was no such rule in earlier forms of characters.

Individually, of course, they still exist as distinct shapes, as demonstrated in the table below.

| 時期 | 「邑」 | 「阜」 |
| --- | --- | --- |
|  | [篆](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script)  `邑` [邑部](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=77390&page=85) [說文解字](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi) | 篆  [部](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=77392&page=88) 說文解字 |
| [西漢](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Western_Han) | [隸](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script)  `邑` 博邑家鼎 | [璽印](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia))  漢印文字徵 |
| [東漢](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Eastern_Han) | 隸  `邑` 陰面 孔宙碑 | 隸  `阜` 陰面 魯峻碑 |
|  | [楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script)  `邑` | 楷  `阜` |

「邑」 originally depicted a [*kneeling person* 「卩」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=21830) outside of [*city walls* 「丁」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=3)†, indicating the meaning *town, city, settlement*. It occurs in many characters to do with these meanings, for example:

* 「都」 (*capital city*)
* 「鄰」 (*neighbour*)
* 「邦」 (*city-state* > *nation*)
* 「郵」 (*postal system*)

「阜」 originally depicted something like *a row of* [*rocks* 「石」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=279), and is commonly used to denote characters to do with *hills/mountains* and *rows/arrays*. For example,

* 「陵」 (*large hill* > *burial place*)
* 「陰」／「陽」 (*north/south side of mountains*)
* 「隊」 (*team, group*, from *an array of people*)
* 「陣」 (*battle formation*; from *an array war chariots* [「車」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=705)).

---

**Footnotes**

\*「邑」 can even occur on the bottom of a character; see e.g. the [glyph evolution table of 「巷」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=1211).
† *City walls* is now written as 「城」 ([Baxter-Sagart OC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstructions_of_Old_Chinese#Baxter%E2%80%93Sagart_(2014)): **/\*[d]eŋ/**). The meaning *fourth [heavenly stem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Stems)* (**/\*tˤeŋ/**) is a [phonetic loan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters).

---

**References:**

* [小學堂字形演變](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian)
* [國學大師](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/)
  + [郭沫若《甲骨文合集》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/)
  + [中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/)
* [中國哲學書電子化計劃](https://ctext.org/)
  + [宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&res=77351)

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: “I highly advise against understanding Chinese characters in terms of radicals”  well, it’s really 曲高和寡 lah  i think that, even in 20 years time, only a handful of users would understand your advice   
> **username_1**: I just think we should learn to understand the writing and its relation to the language correctly, otherwise people will continually believe absolutely wrong and false things like “Simplified Chinese is easier than Traditional Chinese”, when in fact the opposite is true.  
> **username_0**: I learnt the word bù today, I already have pèi in my flash card.  部 bù part, section, ministry, department  陪 péi accompany ;     咅 pǒu to spit out, pooh, pah ; how to understand this? You may be correct that we should understand correctly, but I understood from earlier replies that the radical is same but depends on placement the meaning changes  
> **username_1**: @user27485 I'll emphasise again to not think of those in terms of *radicals*. Chinese SE welcomes questions on [tag:glyph-origin], so feel free to ask new questions for any character you have queries on (but make sure that there isn't an existing question that's already been asked, of course).  
> **username_2**: @user27485 dROOOze is right; you should be mindful whether you are over-analysing things based on just radicals. They are convenient (say when you’re looking up the dictionary) but not necessarily etymologically valid (or conducive to your learning).  

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### Answer by username_5 on 2021-04-05. Score: 1

[阜](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_170)/ 阝 (Radical 170) - meaning: "mound" or "dam" - pinyin: /fu4/

[邑](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_163)/ 阝 (Radical 163) - meaning: "city" - pinyin: /yi4/

> 阝 is a character used in Kangxi writing which serves as the combining form of two distinct radicals, distinguished by whether it is on the left or right of a character. It is the combining form of Radical 170 (阜) when used on the left of a character, as in 阪, and of Radical 163 (邑) when used on the right of a character, as in 部.

The two radicals 阜(170) and 邑(163) are simplified into the same form 阝(170; 163). The only difference is whether it is on the left or right of a character.

* When 阝 is on the left of a character (e.g. 阪, 陳, 陣) it is Radical 170
* When 阝 is on the right of a character (e.g. 部, 邵, 郡) it is Radical 163

[阜](https://www.cidianwang.com/shuowenjiezi/fu9822.htm)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/aewbj.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/aewbj.png)

[邑](https://www.cidianwang.com/shuowenjiezi/yi3925.htm)

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/GmiW1.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/GmiW1.png)


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