yíwù

Yíwù (遗物; pinyin: yíwù) is a Chinese noun meaning relics, remains, or personal belongings left behind. It refers to material objects associated with a person, a historical period, or a culture, including artifacts recovered from archaeological sites and items kept as memories. In everyday language, 遗物 often denotes belongings of a deceased person or objects linked to a notable event.

Etymology: The character 遗 means "to leave behind; to bequeath," and 物 means "thing." The compound thus denotes objects that have been left behind or preserved. The term has classical roots and is used across scholarly and lay contexts to describe material remnants.

Archaeology and museums: In archaeology, 遗物 refers to artifacts found at an excavation site. In museum discourse, 遗物 may comprise items in a collection that illustrate a culture, a lineage, or a specific individual. Distinctions exist with 出土文物 (unearthed cultural relics), which emphasizes provenance from an excavation; 遗物 emphasizes the status of the items as kept leftovers or memorial objects. Cataloging phrases include 遗物清单 and 遗物收藏.

Personal and memorial use: Families and communities use 遗物 to refer to the belongings left by a person after death. Practices such as 遗物整理 (sorting and arranging the deceased's belongings) reflect ritual and memory work, and 遗物 can become items of sentimental significance, genealogical evidence, or cultural heritage.

See also: 遗迹 (ruins or traces); 异物 (foreign object). The term 遗物 is distinct from these related words, though context may overlap in discussions of history and memory.