The character 雨 (yǔ) is one of the oldest pictographs in Chinese writing, dating back to oracle-bone script (甲骨文, jiǎgǔwén) from around 1200 BCE. It depicts raindrops (four dots) falling from a cloud beneath the sky (the top horizontal stroke). It also serves as a radical (部首) in many weather-related characters, such as 雪 (xuě, snow), 雷 (léi, thunder), and 霜 (shuāng, frost).

Rain holds deep cultural significance in China. The phrase 及时雨 (jíshí yǔ, "timely rain") is a classic idiom praising a person who helps at exactly the right moment — it's even a famous nickname for the hero Song Jiang in the classic novel *Water Margin* (水浒传). In agricultural history, rain was so vital that emperors performed formal rain-praying rituals (祈雨). Today, a rainy day in Chinese slang can also imply saving money "for a rainy day": 未雨绸缪 (wèi yǔ chóu móu).