How to Write 棺 (guān) — Meaning “Coffin”

Imagine a wooden box (木) that is reserved for an "official" (官) after their death. This picture of a high-ranking person's wooden coffin helps link the two parts together.

Write the left radical 木 first: horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling — keep it narrow. Then write the right part 官: start with the roof 宀 (dot, dot, horizontal hook) and finish with the lower strokes; a common mistake is making 木 too wide or forgetting the first dot of 宀.

棺 (coffin) has 木 on the left and 官 (official) on the right, while 柴 (firewood) has 木 on top and 此 below, and 栓 (bolt) has 木 on the left with 全 on the right. Visually, 棺's right side has a roof (宀), unlike the other two.

棺 appears in words like 棺材 (coffin) and is used mainly in written or formal language about funerals and death. Culturally, coffins are significant in Chinese tradition, but the character is often avoided in everyday speech due to superstition about death.

Common words containing 棺 include: 棺材 (guān cái) — Coffin; 石棺 (shí guān) — sarcophagus; 灵棺 (líng guān) — coffin (containing a corpse).