How to Write 荩 (jìn) — Meaning “loyal; arthraxon (a type of grass)”

Imagine a loyal official (荩臣) standing on top of a patch of grass (艹), completely exhausted (尽) from serving his emperor. This mental picture combines the grass radical and the 'exhaust' component to remind you of both the plant and loyalty meanings.

Pay attention to the proportions: the grass radical 艹 should be wide and flat, covering the top of 尽 below. A common mistake is making the bottom part too tall or writing the 尽 component with the wrong number of strokes — it has 6 strokes, so the whole character has 9 total.

Unlike 荩, which has the grass radical and a bottom part 尽, 兹 (zī) has the grass radical above a 玄 ('mysterious') and means 'this' or 'now'. 芈 (mǐ) is a surname and has a different bottom shape (羊 without the horizontal line). They look a bit similar but have completely different readings and uses.

Today, 荩 is quite rare and mostly appears in classical or formal contexts, like the word 荩臣 (loyal official) in historical writings. It is also the name of a grass called 荩草 (arthraxon), but this is not a common everyday term. You may encounter it in poetry or ancient texts about loyalty.

Common words containing 荩 include: 荩草 (jìn cǎo) — arthraxon (a type of grass); 荩臣 (jìn chén) — loyal official; 忠荩 (zhōng jìn) — Loyal and devoted.