How to Write 宪 (xiàn) — Meaning “Constitution; law.”

Picture a roof (宀) over a group of people, and the first person (先) standing under it holding a book of laws. The roof protects the law, and that is the constitution — 宪.

Write the radical 宀 first, making sure the roof covers the whole character below. Then write 先: the top strokes (a left-falling stroke and a short horizontal) must be balanced, and the final stroke (儿) should extend slightly below the bottom of 宀. A common mistake is making the 先 portion too tall or too narrow.

宪 (xiàn, constitution) has the component 先 below the roof, while 宋 (sòng, Song dynasty) has 木 (wood/tree) below, and 完 (wán, to finish) has 元 (original/first) below. Visually, 宪's bottom part looks like a person with legs (儿) and a hat (丿一), whereas 宋's bottom is a simple tree shape, and 完's bottom is more rounded.

宪 appears most often in the word 宪法 (xiàn fǎ), meaning 'Constitution', and in legal terms like 违宪 (wéi xiàn, unconstitutional). It is also used in 宪兵 (xiàn bīng) for military police. Because the character is not in the HSK vocabulary, learners will mainly encounter it in formal political or legal discussions about China's Constitution.

Common words containing 宪 include: 宪法 (xiàn fǎ) — Constitution.; 宪兵 (xiàn bīng) — Military police.; 违宪 (wéi xiàn) — unconstitutional.