盥
to wash (especially hands)
Closest English meanings
to wash hands·toilet
The Calligrapher — Dèng Shírú 邓石如
Qing revivalist who restored seal and clerical script to prominence.
Qing calligrapher (), master of seal script/clerical script — Qing self-taught reviver of seal and clerical script, carved energy in every stroke. Qing dynasty
Cultural Story
盥 shows hands washed under water poured from a pitcher into a basin. The Book of Rites prescribed exact ritual washing before sacrifice — pour, rinse, dry — and pairs of bronze vessels were buried with the dead so that clean hands could go on honoring the ancestors forever.
Common words & phrases
- 盥洗 wash up · wash one's hands and face
- 盥漱 wash and rinse
- 盥盆 washbasin
Read the story behind the character
盥 survives in signage: the 盥洗室 door on trains and in hotels, the school notice about 盥漱 habits, and a jug-and-basin 盥盆 in a museum's reconstructed scholar's study. Nobody says it aloud, yet every public restroom sign carries three millennia of ritual water.
Own this character
Purchase delivers the original SVG of this glyph, brushed by Dèng Shírú 邓石如, ready to place on skin, paper, or screen.