卜

See also: 蔔 and ト

卜 U+535C, 卜 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-535C ← 卛 [U+535B] CJK Unified Ideographs 卝 → [U+535D]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

卜 (radical 25, 卜+0, 2 strokes, cangjie input 卜 (Y), four-corner 2300₀, composition ⿰丨丶)

1. Kangxi radical #25, ⼘.

Derived characters

• Index:Chinese radical/卜

References

• KangXi: page 157, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2774
• Dae Jaweon: page 361, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 91, character 11
• Unihan data for U+535C

---

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 卜
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States		Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (卜) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
仆	*pʰoːɡs, *pʰus, *pʰoɡs, *bɯːɡ, *pʰoːɡ
赴	*pʰoɡs
訃	*pʰoɡs
朴	*pʰroːɡ
圤	*pʰroːɡ
卜	*poːɡ
鳪	*poːɡ
扑	*pʰoːɡ
攴	*pʰoːɡ, *pʰroːɡ

Perhaps a pictogram (象形) of a crack in an oracle bone, used for divination in ancient China.

Officially adopted as the simplified form of 蔔 in the Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (《漢字簡化方案》) in 1956.

Etymology 1

simp. and trad.		卜

May be onomatopoeic in origin. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): bǔ (bu³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄨˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): buk¹
• Hakka (Sixian, PFS): puk
• Min Nan (POJ): pok / poh

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: bǔ
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˇ
    • Wade–Giles: pu3
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: buu
    • Tongyong Pinyin: bǔ
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pu²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: buk¹
    • Yale: būk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: buk⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: bug¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʊk̚⁵/
• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: puk
    • Hakka Romanization System: bug`
    • Hagfa Pinyim: bug⁵
    • Sinological IPA: /puk̚²/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pok
    • Tâi-lô: pok
    • Phofsit Daibuun: pog
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /pɔk̚⁵/
    • IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou, Taipei, Kaohsiung): /pɔk̚³²/
  • (Hokkien: General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: poh
    • Tâi-lô: poh
    • Phofsit Daibuun: poiq
    • IPA (Taipei): /poʔ³²/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /pɤʔ³²/

Note:

• poh - also written as 博;
• pok - surname (Mainland).

---

• Dialectal data

Variety	Location	edit 卜
Mandarin	Beijing	/pu²¹⁴/
	Harbin	/pʰu²¹³/
	Tianjin	/pʰu¹³/
	Jinan	/pu⁵⁵/
	Qingdao	/pu⁵⁵/
	Zhengzhou	/pu⁵³/
	Xi'an	/po²¹/
	Xining	/pv̩⁴⁴/
	Yinchuan	/puə¹³/ 姓 /pu¹³/ ～算子
	Lanzhou	/pə¹³/
	Ürümqi	/pʰu⁵¹/
	Wuhan	/pʰu²¹³/
	Chengdu	/pu¹³/
	Guiyang	/pʰu²¹/
	Kunming	/pʰu³¹/
	Nanjing	/puʔ⁵/
	Hefei	/pʰəʔ⁵/
Jin	Taiyuan	/pəʔ²/
	Pingyao	/pʌʔ¹³/
	Hohhot	/pəʔ⁴³/ ～拉 /pei⁵⁵/ 萝～
Wu	Shanghai	/poʔ⁵/
	Suzhou	/poʔ⁵/
	Hangzhou	/pʰoʔ⁵/
	Wenzhou	/po²¹³/
Hui	Shexian	/pɔʔ²¹/
	Tunxi	/pʰu⁵/
Xiang	Changsha	/pʰu²⁴/
	Xiangtan	/pʰu²⁴/
Gan	Nanchang
Hakka	Meixian	/puk̚¹/
	Taoyuan	/puk̚²²/
Cantonese	Guangzhou	/pok̚⁵/
	Nanning	/pʰuk̚⁵⁵/
	Hong Kong	/puk̚⁵/
Min	Xiamen (Min Nan)	/pɔk̚³²/ /poʔ³²/
	Fuzhou (Min Dong)	/pɔuʔ²³/
	Jian'ou (Min Bei)	/pʰu²⁴/
	Shantou (Min Nan)	/pok̚²/
	Haikou (Min Nan)	/ʔbɔk̚⁵/ /ʔbak̚⁵/

---

• Middle Chinese: /puk̚/

Rime
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	屋 (3)
Tone (調)	Checked (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	博木切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/puk̚/
Pan Wuyun	/puk̚/
Shao Rongfen	/puk̚/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/pəwk̚/
Li Rong	/puk̚/
Wang Li	/puk̚/
Bernard Karlgren	/puk̚/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	bu

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*pˤok/

  (Zhengzhang): /*poːɡ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	bǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ puwk ›
Old Chinese	/*pˁok/
English	divine (v.)
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	卜
Reading #	1/1
No.	998
Phonetic component	卜
Rime group	屋
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	卜
Old Chinese	/*poːɡ/

Definitions

卜

1. (literary) to divine
2. A surname​.

Compounds

• 不卜可知
• 前途未卜
• 卜人
• 卜兒／卜儿
• 卜卜
• 卜卦 (bǔguà)
• 卜吉
• 卜夜卜晝／卜夜卜昼
• 卜婿
• 卜宅
• 卜居 (bǔjū)
• 卜年
• 卜度
• 卜征
• 卜日
• 卜易
• 卜晝卜夜／卜昼卜夜
• 卜珓 (bǔjiào)
• 卜祝

• 卜窀穸
• 卜筮 (bǔshì)
• 卜算
• 卜築／卜筑
• 卜老
• 卜者
• 卜課／卜课
• 卜辭／卜辞 (bǔcí)
• 卜鄰／卜邻 (bǔlín)
• 占卜 (zhānbǔ)
• 吉凶未卜
• 吉卜賽人／吉卜赛人 (jíbǔsàirén)
• 問卜／问卜 (wènbǔ)
• 太卜
• 存亡未卜
• 成都賣卜／成都卖卜
• 拉卜楞
• 未卜 (wèibǔ)
• 未卜先知 (wèibǔxiānzhī)

• 枚卜
• 死生未卜
• 殷墟卜辭／殷墟卜辞
• 求神問卜／求神问卜
• 油花卜
• 狼卜食
• 玉枝卜壽／玉枝卜寿
• 羊卜
• 老醫少卜／老医少卜
• 耳卜
• 貞卜文字／贞卜文字
• 貨卜／货卜
• 賣卜／卖卜
• 賣卜測字／卖卜测字
• 醫卜星相／医卜星相
• 響卜／响卜
• 預卜／预卜
• 鳥卜／鸟卜
• 龜卜／龟卜 (guībǔ)

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 卜 – see 蔔. (This character, 卜, is the simplified form of 蔔.)

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Etymology 3

For pronunciation and definitions of 卜 – see 欲 (“wish; desire; to wish; to desire; to want; etc.”). (This character, 卜, is a variant form of 欲.)

References

• “Entry #64”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

---

Japanese

Kanji

卜

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

Readings

• Go-on: ほく (hoku)
• Kan-on: ほく (hoku)
• Kan’yō-on: ぼく (boku)
• Kun: うらなう (uranau), うらない (uranai)

Noun

卜(うらない) • (uranai) 

1. Alternative form of 占い

卜(ぼく) • (boku) 

1. (archaic) fortune-telling

卜(うら) • (ura) 

1. (archaic) fortune-telling

---

Korean

Hanja

卜 (eumhun 점 복 (jeom bok))

1. Hanja form^? of 복 (“to divine”).

---

Vietnamese

Han character

卜

Readings

• âm: bốc, cốc, bặc, bóc, vốc
• nghĩa (literal meaning): ăn bốc

Verb

卜

1. ăn bốc (咹卜, to eat with the fingers)

References

• Nôm Foundation
• Vietnamese Dictionaries: Viet Fun, Viet Dictionary

---

Zhuang

Noun

卜

1. Sawndip form of boh

Classifier

卜

1. Sawndip form of boux