Radical 118 or radical bamboo (竹部) meaning 'bamboo' is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. The radical character usually appears at the top of characters and transforms into 𥫗.
In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 953 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
As an independent sinogram 竹 is a Chinese character. It is one of the Kyōiku kanji or Kanji taught in elementary school in Japan.[1] It means bamboo or the middle of a 3-tier ranking system
Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN0-89659-774-1.
GF 0011-2009 Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components prescribes 201 principle indexing components and 100 associated indexing components (in brackets) used in Simplified Chinese. Not all associated indexing components are listed above.