(jiān): shoulder, to shoulder (responsibilities etc)

(jiān) is a Chinese character meaning “shoulder.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1407 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a man bringing home meat ⺼ for the family 户. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. shoulder
  2. to shoulder (responsibilities etc)

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA man bringing home meat ⺼ for the family 户

Decomposition: ⿸户⺼ (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounjiān bǎngshoulder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bìng jiānalongside
pī jiāncape
jiān fùto shoulder (a burden)
cā jiān ér guòto brush past
sǒng jiānto shrug one's shoulders
jiān jiǎ gǔscapula
jiān tóuon one's shoulders
jiān zhāngepaulet
diàn jiānshoulder pad
jiān jiǎshoulder
kǎn jiānsleeveless jacket (usually cotton)
xié shǒu bìng jiānhand in hand and shoulder to shoulder
gōu jiān dā bèi(idiom) arms around each other's shoulders
shuāng jiān bāobackpack
mó jiān jiē zhǒnglit. rubbing shoulders and following in each other's footsteps
45
Total compounds
31
As first character
38
As last character
31
As middle character

appears in 45 compound words: 31 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 31 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

bǎng
0.71813,732 co-occurrences
gāng
0.6011,731 co-occurrences
0.577912 co-occurrences
sǒng
0.521570 co-occurrences
0.5213,390 co-occurrences
0.4871,758 co-occurrences
zhāng
0.4547,968 co-occurrences
0.4413,864 co-occurrences
kuà
0.43342 co-occurrences
xiōng
0.4221,398 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

āi jiān cā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) to be crowded together

phrase
cājiān'érguòHSK 6+

to brush past (someone, opportunity, death, etc.)

phrase
gōu jiān dā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) arms around each other's shoulders

phrase
mójiānjiēzhǒngHSK 6+

to be crowded; to be filled with people.

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他拍了拍我的膀,鼓励我不要放弃。

Tā pāi le pāi wǒ de jiānbǎng, gǔlì wǒ bùyào fàngqì.

He patted my shoulder, encouraging me not to give up.

99 健康网Mar 2026

少女第一次做ae一般多少秒正常?颈酸痛是姿势不良的早期信号吗

shǎo nǚ dì yī cì zuò a e yī bān duō shǎo miǎo zhèng cháng ? jiān jǐng suān tòng shì zī shì bù liáng de zǎo qī xìn hào ma

How many seconds is normal for a girl to do AE for the first time? Is shoulder and neck pain an early sign of poor posture?

NewsFeb 2026

赵露思传执刘亦菲二摊 懒理是非骚香卖萌

zhào lù sī chuán zhí liú yì 菲 èr tān lǎn lǐ shì fēi sāo xiāng jiān mài méng

Zhao Lusi passed on Liu Yifei's second stall and was lazy to deal with right and wrong

中時新聞網Feb 2026

刘雨柔被传老公想离婚 深夜再发声“一扛起所有压力”

liú yǔ róu bèi chuán lǎo gōng xiǎng lí hūn shēn yè zài fā shēng yī jiān gāng qǐ suǒ yǒu yā lì

Liu Yurou was rumored to want a divorce and spoke out late at night to "shoulder all the pressure"

風傳媒Feb 2026

...出游路线“省钱又不容易塞车”管制路段+路开放一次看

. . . chū yóu lù xiàn shěng qián yòu bù róng yì sāi chē guǎn zhì lù duàn lù jiān kāi fàng yī cì kàn

... The travel route is "cost-saving and not easy to get stuck in traffic", the controlled road section + shoulder is open to see at once

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

長假結束腰背痛頸僵假日症候群? 聯新國際:核心斷線

長 jiǎ 結 shù yāo bèi tòng jiān 頸 jiāng jiǎ rì zhèng hòu qún ? 聯 xīn 國 際 hé xīn 斷 線

Post-Holiday Syndrome: Back Pain and Stiff Shoulders After the Long Break? Lianxin International: Core Disconnection

Tatoeba

我把盒子扛在上。

Wǒ bǎ hézi gāng zài jiān shàng.

I carried the box on my shoulder.

Tatoeba

她把头枕在母亲的膀上。

Tā bǎtóu zhěn zài mǔqīn de jiānbǎng shàng.

She rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

Tatoeba

汤姆给玛丽冷的膀。

Tāngmǔ gěi Mǎlì lěng de jiānbǎng.

Tom gave Mary the cold shoulder.

Tatoeba

垂直的金发滑过她的膀。

Chuízhí de jīnfà huá guo tā de jiānbǎng.

Straight golden hair slides over her shoulder.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 肩 (jiān) mean in Chinese?
肩 (jiān) primarily means "shoulder." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1407 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 肩 have?
肩 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 肩?
The radical associated with 肩 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 肩?
肩 is composed of: 户 (structural), ⺼ (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸户⺼ with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 肩?
Common words with 肩 include: 肩膀 (jiān bǎng, "shoulder"); 并肩 (bìng jiān, "alongside"); 披肩 (pī jiān, "cape"); 肩负 (jiān fù, "to shoulder (a burden)"); 擦肩而过 (cā jiān ér guò, "to brush past"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 肩 (jiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiān: 坚 (strong), 间 (room, between), 减 (to lower), 检 (to check), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 肩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 肩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.