Bamboo Shoot

Usually, 筍 means bamboo shoot; Cantonese context can make it mean bargain.

The pre-imperial Book of Songs, an early Chinese poetry collection, already includes 筍 among gathered greens; the Han-era dictionary Shuowen defines it as 竹胎, literally “bamboo embryo.”

Chinese records also give 筍 names for several bamboo-made things: a crossbar in a musical frame, a bamboo palanquin (a litter carried by people), and tender bamboo skin woven into mats. They also record a tenon, the wooden projection that fits into a joint. 竹 signals the bamboo category; 旬 points toward the character's sound.

Why did someone send me 筍?

It may praise a deal in Hong Kong Cantonese.

As of 2026, Hong Kong Cantonese uses 筍 as favorable slang for something very good value or cheaper than its worth. 筍工 means an unusually attractive job; 筍盤 describes bargain-priced property. In Mandarin food talk, the literal shoot reading is the safer default.

Which one is real: 筍 or 笋?

Both are real forms; the writing convention decides which appears.

筍 is the traditional form; 笋 is the shorter simplified form and is also recorded as a variant. Both name the same bamboo-shoot word.

Japanese also uses 筍 for bamboo shoot, read たけのこ. Older native names include たかむな and たかんな. A medieval Japanese travel diary records an older reading borrowed from Chinese.