How to Write 黔 (qián) — Meaning “Short for Guizhou province / Black”

Think of the left side 黑 as 'black' and the right side 今 as 'now'. Imagine that now (今) everything is black (黑) because the sky is dark in Guizhou province, which 黔 represents. This helps link the shape to the meaning.

Write the left radical 黑 first with 12 strokes: the top part (田), then the four dots below. Then add the right side 今 with 4 strokes: a top 'person' shape (人) and a bottom hook (㇉). A common mistake is to write the bottom of 今 as 乛 (horizontal hook) instead of the correct downward hook.

黔 (qián) means 'black' or 'Guizhou', while 默 (mò) means 'silent' or 'quiet', and 黛 (dài) is a black pigment for eyebrows. Visually, 黔 has 黑 on the left and 今 on the right; 默 has 黑 on the left and 犬 (dog) on the right; 黛 has 黑 on the top and 代 (replace) on the bottom. Their meanings and uses are very different.

黔 is most commonly used as a short name for Guizhou province, such as in 黔南 (southern Guizhou) or 黔剧 (Guizhou Opera). A famous idiom is 黔驴技穷 (qián lǘ jì qióng), meaning 'to be at one's wit's end', which comes from a story about a donkey in Guizhou that exhausted all its tricks. This character is not in HSK but appears in place names and literature.

Common words containing 黔 include: 黔驴技穷 (qián lǘ jì qióng) — At one's wit's end; 黔剧 (qián jù) — Guizhou Opera; 黔南 (qián nán) — Qiannan (Southern Guizhou).