How to Write 艰 (jiān) — Meaning “difficult; hard”

Picture a farmer trying to plow a field with a stubborn ox (艮) and having to do it again and again (又). The image of struggling repeatedly with a tough task helps you remember that 艰 means "difficult" or "hard."

Write the left part 艮 first, keeping its horizontal strokes slightly upward and balanced. Then add the right part 又 with a narrow cross stroke and a curved final stroke that extends below the left side to maintain overall balance. A common mistake is making the 又 too wide or incorrectly placing its last stroke, which ruins the character's proportion.

艮 alone means "stubborn" or is a trigram and has no right component, while 良 means "good" and has a small dot on top plus a different bottom stroke. 艰 adds 又 on the right to form "difficult," so visually it has more strokes and a clear right side, unlike the simpler 艮 or the dot-topped 良.

艰 appears in formal and written Chinese to describe hardship, such as in common words like 艰难 (hardship) and 艰苦 (tough conditions). It is often used in news about challenging situations or in idioms like 艰苦朴素 (hard work and plain living), reflecting the cultural value of perseverance through difficulty.

Common words containing 艰 include: 艰难 (jiān nán) — difficult; hard; hardship; 艰苦 (jiān kǔ) — difficult; tough; arduous; 艰巨 (jiān jù) — arduous; formidable.