How to Write 汶 (wèn) — Meaning “Wen (name of a river)”

Imagine a river (氵) with a cultural scroll (文) floating on it — this river is the Wen River, famous in Chinese history. Alternatively, think 'Wen sounds like 'when', and when you see water, it's the Wen River.'

Write the water radical first as three strokes: dot, dot, and a lifting stroke. Then add 文 on the right: start with a dot, then a horizontal line, followed by two sweeping strokes falling left and right. Keep the right side narrow so the whole character is balanced, with the water radical taking about one-third of the width.

汶 uses 文 on the right, meaning a specific river. 㳄 (xián) has a different right component similar to 欠 (to lack) and means saliva, but it is extremely rare. 氿 (guǐ) has 九 (nine) on the right and refers to a spring that flows from the side of a hill. Only 汶 is used as a proper river name.

汶 appears almost exclusively in place names such as 汶河 (Wen River) in Shandong and 汶川 (Wenchuan) in Sichuan, which was the epicenter of the devastating 2008 earthquake. It is not part of HSK vocabulary, so learners will mostly encounter it in geography or news about these locations.

Common words containing 汶 include: 汶河 (wèn hé) — Wen River; 汶川 (wèn chuān) — Wenchuan (a county in Sichuan); 汶水 (wèn shuǐ) — Wen River.