梅 · méi
梅 · méi
Character · Stillness
What it means
Plum blossom — the first flower of the year, which opens on bare wood before anything else has the nerve to. Resolute rather than hardy.
梅：花中魁首。万物未动时它先开在光枝上——是坚韧，不是耐寒。
Where the character comes from
The plum is the flower of the civil servant, because it blooms where nothing else will and is not bent by it. It is the first of the Four Gentlemen, and the one whose wood is used for the flutes that carry poetry.
A phono-semantic compound: 木 (wood) with 每 (the phonetic). The tree, not the blossom, is the primary meaning.
- Official historyShuowen Jiezi木部
- Literary noteFour Gentlemen
How it gets misread
Peony (牡丹) → Plum 梅
Both are among the "four noble" flowers in folk ranking, which is exactly the confusion. Plum has five thin petals on bare wood; peony is layered and heavy.
Before you ink
Five petals and a visible calyx. The plum blossom is drawn nearly white with a small calyx and a short stem — the calyx is what a stylised version usually drops first.
梅 and 海 (sea) are unrelated despite the identical shape in some handwriting styles. Check the stroke above the 母.