How to Write 榇 (chèn) — Meaning “Coffin”

Imagine a close family member (亲) lying inside a wooden box (木). The left side is wood, the right side is "relative" — so 榇 is the wooden box that holds your relative. This visual of "wood + relative" directly links to the meaning of coffin.

Write the left radical 木 first (horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling), then the right component 亲 (top: 立, bottom: 木). A common mistake is making the right side's bottom 木 too wide — keep it narrow so the whole character stays balanced. Also note that 亲 has 9 strokes, making 13 total.

榇 (coffin) uses 亲 on the right, while 桫 (suō, a tree name) has 沙 on the right, and 桲 (bó, a type of pear) has 孛 on the right. The meaning is completely different: 榇 is a coffin, 桫 is a plant, 桲 is a fruit tree. Visually, the right-side components look distinct.

榇 is a formal, literary character mainly used in funeral contexts, such as 灵榇 (ling chèn, a coffin holding a corpse) or 榇木 (chèn mù, coffin wood). It is not common in daily conversation but appears in obituaries or traditional ceremonies. Culturally, the character carries a somber tone, always associated with death and respect for the deceased.

Common words containing 榇 include: 榇木 (chèn mù) — Coffin wood; 灵榇 (líng chèn) — coffin (containing a corpse); 榇托 (chèn tuō) — Coffin support.