書

書 U+66F8, 書 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-66F8 ← 曷 [U+66F7] CJK Unified Ideographs 曹 → [U+66F9]

書 U+2F8CC, 書 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F8CC ← 旣 [U+2F8CB] CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 晉 → [U+2F8CD]

Stroke order

書 (Kangxi radical 73, 曰+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 中土日 (LGA), four-corner 5060₁, composition ⿳𦘒一曰)

• 圕 晝(昼) 𫫒 𪳛 𬣄 𦥌 𭓙 𡳩 𤾭 𮓎 𦘢 𬁫 𭨡 𦧶 𤾳 𢅺 𢆅 𣍚 𣍜 𬮑 𦶕 𨃲

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 502, character 12
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14294
• Dae Jaweon: page 874, character 18
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1509, character 9
• Unihan data for U+66F8

• Unihan data for U+2F8CC

trad.		書
simp.		书
alternative forms		𦘠 𰭽

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *hlja): semantic 聿 (“writing brush”) + phonetic 者 (OC *tjaːʔ).

Unknown (Schuessler, 2007).

書

1. book; codex (Classifier: 本 m c; 部 m c; 冊／册 m)

   我對這本書產生了共鳴。 [MSC, trad.]
   我对这本书产生了共鸣。 [MSC, simp.]

   Wǒ duì zhè běn shū chǎnshēng le gòngmíng. [Pinyin]

   I resonated with this book.

   唔記得買書／唔记得买书 [Cantonese]  ―  m⁴ gei³ dak¹ maai⁵ syu¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to forget to buy textbooks

2. letter; document

   證明書／证明书  ―  zhèngmíngshū  ―  certificate

   推薦書／推荐书  ―  tuījiànshū  ―  recommendation letter

   情書／情书  ―  qíngshū  ―  love letter

   家書／家书  ―  jiāshū  ―  letter to or from one's family or home

   《告臺灣同胞書》 [MSC, trad.]
   《告台湾同胞书》 [MSC, simp.]

   “Gào Táiwān Tóngbāo Shū” [Pinyin]

   Message to the Compatriots in Taiwan

3. form of a written or printed Chinese character; style of calligraphy; script; font

   楷書／楷书  ―  kǎishū  ―  regular script

   隸書／隶书  ―  lìshū  ―  clerical script

4. (literary) Chinese character; writing; script

   • 項籍少時學書，不成，去；學劍，又不成。項梁怒之。籍曰：「書足以記姓名而已。劍一人敵，不足學，學萬人敵。」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     项籍少时学书，不成，去；学剑，又不成。项梁怒之。籍曰：「书足以记姓名而已。剑一人敌，不足学，学万人敌。」 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Xiàng Jí shàoshí xué shū, bùchéng, qù; xué jiàn, yòu bùchéng. Xiàng Liáng nù zhī. Jí yuē: “Shū zúyǐ jì xìngmíng éryǐ. Jiàn yī rén dí, bùzú xué, xué wàn rén dí.” [Pinyin]

     As a child, Xiang Yu tried to learn (to read and write) Chinese characters but failed and gave it up; then he tried to learn swordplay, but failed too. Xiang Liang was angry with him. Yu said, "Characters are useful for writing names only. Neither is swordplay worth learning as it can only stand up to one person. I want to learn something that can resist ten thousand people.

5. (literary) the art of calligraphy
6. (historical) ancient government post in charge of secretarial duties
7. (historical) imperial edict
8. storytelling

   說書／说书  ―  shuōshū  ―  to perform pingshu (storytelling)

   聽書／听书  ―  tīngshū  ―  to listen to performance of pingshu (storytelling)

9. to write

   書寫／书写  ―  shūxiě  ―  to write

   罄竹難書／罄竹难书  ―  qìngzhúnánshū  ―  (of crimes) to be too many to mention

   • 動則左史書之，言則右史書之。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     动则左史书之，言则右史书之。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, simp.]

     From: The Book of Rites, c. 4^th – 2^nd century BCE

     Dòng zé zuǒshǐ shū zhī, yán zé yòushǐ shū zhī. [Pinyin]

     His actions were written down by the recorder of the Left, and his utterances by the recorder of the Right.

10. (Cantonese, education) teaching materials (Classifier: 課／课 c; 堂 c) (clarification of this definition is needed)

    聽書／听书 [Cantonese]  ―  teng¹ syu¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to listen in class

11. short for 書經／书经 (Shūjīng, “the Classic of History”)
12. a surname

• (letter):

"Others":

• → Proto-Tai: *sɯːᴬ
  • Thai: สือ (sʉ̌ʉ)

• “書”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “書”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 140.

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

• Go-on: しょ (sho, Jōyō)^{←しよ (syo, historical)}
• Kan-on: しょ (sho, Jōyō)^{←しよ (syo, historical)}
• Kun: かく (kaku, 書く, Jōyō)、ふみ (fumi, 書)

Kanji in this term
書
しょ Grade: 2
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 書 (syo, “writing”).

• (Tokyo) しょ [shò] (Heiban – [0])^[1][2]
• (Tokyo) しょ [shóꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1][2]
• IPA^(key): [ɕo̞]

書(しょ) • (sho) 

1. document

Kanji in this term
書
ふみ Grade: 2
kun'yomi

• 文

• (Tokyo) ふみ [fúꜜmì] (Atamadaka – [1])^[1][2]
• (Tokyo) ふみ [fùmíꜜ] (Odaka – [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ɸɯ̟mʲi]

書(ふみ) • (fumi) 

1. letter

From Middle Chinese 書 (MC syo). Recorded as Middle Korean 셔 (sye) (Yale: sye) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Wikisource

書 (eumhun 글 서 (geul seo))

1. Hanja form^? of 서 (“document”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [2]

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

• On (unclassified): し (shi)、す (su)^{←しゅ (syu, historical)}
• Kun: かちゅん (kachun, 書ちゅん)

• 書(し)物(むち) (shimuchi)
• 上(っわー)書(が)ち ('wāgachi)
• 下(しちゃ)書(が)ち (shichagachi)

書: Hán Nôm readings: thư

(classifier 幅 (bức), 蘿 (lá)) 書

1. chữ Hán form of thư (“(postal) a letter”)

   函(hòm)書(thư)電(điện)子(tử) ― an e-mail

書

1. chữ Hán form of thư (“(dated or historical) a document, book or compilation”)

   證(chứng)明(minh)書(thư)

   an identity card

   後(Hậu)漢(Hán)書(thư) ― the Book of (Later) Han

   大(Đại)越(Việt)史(sử)記(ký)全(toàn)書(thư) ― Complete Annals of Đại Việt

In Chinese, 書 / 书 (shū) ambiguously means "book", "document" or "letter". In Vietnamese, the senses of "book" and "document" are only fossilized and not productive. The free noun only means "letter". For the free noun meaning "book", use 冊 (sách) instead.