Zhu (朱) is a pictophonetic character and associative compound. Mu (木) and Zhu (丶) indicate the meaning, and especially the latter refers to the pronunciation as well. Its original meaning is wood with red inside. Zhu (朱) assumes the semantic function in pictophonetic characters. The meaning of the expression comes from two sources: one is that it derives from the extended meaning of Zhu (丶) as the phonetic symbol of Zhu (朱) means red or bright; the other is that it derives from the extended meaning or rebus of a short form for Zhu (鼄), which means ‘to cut off’ or ‘a name of the place’.