How to Write 田 (tián) — Meaning “field / farmland”

Imagine looking down at a rice paddy from above: the outer square is the field boundary, and the cross in the middle represents two pathways dividing the field into four smaller plots. You can also think of it as a window with four panes, where each pane is a patch of farmland.

Write 田 with 5 strokes: first draw the outer square by writing the left vertical, top horizontal, right vertical, then bottom horizontal. Then add the cross inside with a vertical line through the middle and a horizontal line through the center. A common mistake is making the cross lines touch the outer box; they should connect cleanly at the edges.

田 (tián) has a simple cross in the middle, while 由 (yóu) has a vertical line that extends above the top horizontal line, meaning 'from' or 'reason'. 甲 (jiǎ) has a vertical line that extends below the bottom horizontal, meaning 'first' or 'shell'. The key difference is the position of the vertical stroke: inside for 田, above for 由, below for 甲.

田 is commonly used in words related to farming, such as 农田 (farmland) and 稻田 (rice paddy). It also appears in names and idioms, like 田鸡 (field chicken, meaning 'frog'). Culturally, 田 represents the foundation of agriculture, which is very important in Chinese tradition, and it is often seen in proverbs about hard work and harvest.

Common words containing 田 include: 农田 (nóng tián) — Farmland; 田野 (tián yě) — field / open country; 稻田 (dào tián) — rice field; paddy field.