寿 · shòu
寿 · shòu
Character · Auspicious words
What it means
Longevity — the character that got more elaborate the longer people lived, and the one word a birthday card in this language is not complete without.
寿：活得越久，字写得越繁；也是一张生日帖上不可缺少的一个字。
Where the character comes from
Shou began as a picture of an old person with a long spine. The 壽 seal-script form carved onto bronze and stamped onto birthday cakes is a different, much denser shape — three thousand years of adding strokes to wish for more time.
From a bent old person beside the 𠷎 phonetic; the seal form is the one that became the decorative emblem.
- Official historyShuowen Jiezi老部
- Official historyBronze and seal forms
How it gets misread
受 (receive) → 寿 / 壽
In simplified handwriting the two are easy to confuse — both are six or seven strokes over a similar frame. 寿 has three horizontal strokes at the top; 受 has a claw.
Half traditional 壽 with a simplified partner → One script throughout
This character is where script mixing is most tempting and most visible.
Before you ink
The seal-script 壽 is the emblematic form and it is dense — size it so the strokes do not fill in. Below about 4 cm it becomes a solid block.
Simplified 寿 and traditional 壽 are recognisably different to a reader but similar to a non-reader. Pick one and stay in it.