龠 (yuè) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

龠

yuè[yue4]Tone 4

ancient flute

Guru Deep Dive

English · ancient flute

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Topology:Top-bottom

Strokes:17

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the top section compact with balanced parallel lines, and ensure the bottom mouth/container element anchors the character firmly without splaying outward too wide.

1. Meaning

ancient flute

ancient unit of volume (half a ge3, equivalent to 50ml)reed instrument

NounLiteraryBound morpheme#music#measurement#history

Sample Usage

龠, 音乐也。
yuè, yīnyuè yě.
Yue refers to music and flutes.
古以容量名龠。
gǔ yǐ róngliàng míng yuè.
In ancient times, yue was used as a unit of volume.

2. Sound

/[yœy̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51

龠

yuèyue4

`(51)

=yuè

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

yue

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "e" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Say it like:“yu-eh”Phonetic respellingTone pitch cue:sharp fall, like a command

Key difference: Starts on rounded front vowel [y], gliding into [ɛ].

Initial Consonant

Type: Glide (y)

Sounds like: Glide (y)

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue starts forward and high near the front teeth for the rounded front vowel ü.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: ü-eh sound

Note: Written as 'ue', pronounced as rounded 'üe' [y].

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'üeh'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply to the bottom, matching an emphatic command or an abrupt 'No!' in English.

👂

Listening trap: Often confused with general words like 'yuè' ( yuè / yuè ), ensure the front rounded vowel 'ü' is distinct from plain 'u' or 'i'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, forceful karate chop dropping from high in the air straight down to the floor.

3. Writing

Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 17 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: Keep the top section compact with balanced parallel lines, and ensure the bottom mouth/container element anchors the character firmly without splaying outward too wide.

4. Components

Radical 龠 · Flute Radical (flute, ancient wind instrument)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 龠 (Depicts an ancient multi-pipe bamboo flute held together.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 龠 (original sound: yuè)

The character visually mimics a cluster of bamboo pipes bound together, representing both the ancient musical instrument and standard measuring tubes.

亼 gather or assemble at the top
品 mouths or openings representing the pipe holes

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

4· Phonetic Root: 龠 (yuè)

5. History

Liushu category: Pictogram (象形)

Origin: In Oracle Bone and Bronze scripts, 龠 was drawn as a set of several bamboo flutes tied together with a cord, mirroring the multi-tube panpipe instruments of early China.

Semantic Evolution: Originally representing a musical wind instrument with multiple pipes, it was also adopted as a standard measure of volume because standard flute tubes doubled as calibration containers for grain.

Ancient Chinese measurement of capacity was tied to music; standard pitch pipes (lǜlǚ) doubled as volume measures.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ヤク (yaku) / Kun: ふえ (fue)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

약

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine an ancient musician gathering a bundle of bamboo pipes (龠) to play a haunting melody that drops sharply in pitch (Tone 4), echoing through the valley.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

瀹

yuèto cleanse; to boil+ 氵 (water)

鑰

+ 釒 (metal)

龥

yùto appeal to, to implore+ 頁 (head)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

月(yuè)

月 means 'moon' and has only 4 strokes, whereas 龠 is a massive 17-stroke character representing an ancient flute.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

古代的[___]是一种多管的乐器。

Clue: yuè

Common Learner Pitfall

Mistaking this rare classical character for the common word 'yuè' (月 moon or 音乐 music) due to identical pinyin sound.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the complex 17-stroke character 龠, what does it depict and how do you pronounce it?

Production: How do you write and pronounce the rare classical character for an ancient flute or volume unit (yuè)?

龠yuèancient flute

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