Brush character

It depicts a brush and later works as a grammatical particle. The earliest surviving forms appear in late Shang divination inscriptions carved on bone or shell, where 聿 often stands in names. The graph is read as a hand holding a brush; later bronze inscriptions show it in writing-related use.

In Classical Chinese, 聿 can appear at the start or middle of a sentence as a grammatical particle. Depending on the passage, it may be left untranslated or rendered as “then”; it does not name a brush in that use.

How is 聿 connected to brushes and other characters?

筆 is the later brush character; 聿 supplies the sound in 律. The early Chinese character dictionary 說文解字 records brush names in four ancient states: 聿 in 楚, 不律 in 吳, 弗 in 燕, and 筆 in 秦. These are regional names for one tool, not four meanings of 聿.

In 筆, 竹 (“bamboo”) was added above 聿 to mark the brush. In 律, 聿 is a phonetic component—a part that hints at sound—while 彳 is the step or path component. 聿 does not mean “brush” there.

Why can 聿 look different or mean different things?

Language, sentence position, and font all matter. As of 2026, fonts for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean can draw 聿 with small regional differences; the form on screen depends on the installed font. These are display forms of the same character.

Japanese dictionaries also list 聿 for a brush, alongside literary senses meaning “describe,” “cultivate,” and “quick” or “brisk.” Chinese dictionaries foreground the brush noun and classical particle. Read the language and sentence role before settling on a gloss.