Chinese Character Wiki
艱

jiān

difficult

Originally pictograph of person (卩 or 女) guarding a drum (壴) to report difficulties. Later reanalyzed as a compound of 𦰩 and 艮, which both represent the sound.

Components
𦰩 sound,iconic component

𦰩  Sound Iconic component

jiān

  

to sigh

Depicts a person reporting difficulties. Originally written as 卩 or 女.

艮 sound component

艮  Sound component

gěn, gèn

  

blunt

Originally written as 壴 but later reanalyzed as 艮 to represent the sound.

Evolution

艱 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
艱 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
艱 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
艱 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
艱 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

艰 (艱) 

jiān

difficult, hard; distressing; difficult; hard; hardship

Most common words with 艱
Freq.
Word
Meaning

艰难

hard

艰苦

hard

艰辛

hardships

艰巨

arduous

艰苦奋斗

to struggle arduously

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*kˤrə[r]

kean

jiān

difficulty


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 17.5877% of movies

1646th most common character in movies

1647th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

17

Simplified

艰

Unicode

U+8271

Shuowen

“艱，土難治也。从堇，艮聲。囏，籀文艱从喜。”


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