How to Write 肩 (jiān) — Meaning “shoulder”

Imagine your shoulder is a door (户) that opens and closes for your arm, and it is made of flesh (⺼). You can think: "My shoulder is the flesh-door that lets my arm move." This mental picture combines the two parts into one memorable image.

When writing 肩, make sure the top part 户 is slightly wider than the bottom ⺼, and the left side of 户 has a short vertical stroke that does not touch the top horizontal line. A common mistake is making the ⺼ part too big or forgetting that the last stroke of ⺼ is a short diagonal line, not a full vertical.

肩 (shoulder) has 户 on top and ⺼ below, while 肝 (liver) has 干 on the left and ⺼ on the right — so their radicals are in different positions. 㐆 is a rare ancient character that means "to follow" and looks like a reversed hand; it is not used in modern Chinese, so you only need to remember it is not the same as the 户 part in 肩.

肩 appears in common words like 肩膀 (shoulder) and 肩上 (on the shoulder), and it is often used in phrases about carrying loads, e.g., "肩上扛着" (carrying on the shoulder). In Chinese culture, the shoulder symbolizes responsibility and burden, as in the idiom "重任在肩" (a heavy responsibility rests on one's shoulders).

Common words containing 肩 include: 肩膀 (jiān bǎng) — shoulder; 肩上 (jiān shàng) — on the shoulder; 披肩 (pī jiān) — shawl.