About
With a clear phono-semantic structure, 苘 (qǐng) uses the grass radical 艹 (cǎo) at the top to classify it as a plant, while the lower part 冋 (jiōng) provides the pronunciation. It was originally created to name the Indian mallow or velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), an annual herb whose strong bast fibers were traditionally harvested to weave coarse cloth, make durable ropes, and produce burlap sacks. The character appears most often in the compound 苘麻 (qǐngmá), the specific name for this fiber plant, and is mainly found in agricultural contexts, textile history, and certain regional dialects rather than in everyday language.