竹

• Botanical: The bamboo plant.
• Material/Medium: In pre-paper contexts, the physical medium of writing (by extension: archives, records, or the act of recording).
• Instrumental: Wind instruments made of bamboo (specifically the flute), or other hollowed-out tools and pipes.
• Symbolic: A shorthand for resilience, integrity, humility (the hollow center), or flexibility.

// Tang-period reading: //djiuk

• Fanqie reading: 張六

• Kangxi radical 118.

Prioritize the distinction between bamboo as a botanical object and bamboo as a material. In contexts concerning administration, scholarship, or history, consider whether the glyph refers to documents rather than flora.