BeginChinese
every character tells a story
The ancient form
Today

shān · saan1

mountain

Where it comes from

Three peaks on a baseline — you can still see them today. 山 is one of the characters that has barely changed in three millennia: the middle peak stands tallest, two shoulders beside it. Once you have seen the mountains in it, you can never unsee them.

A piece of culture

Sacred mountains
China counts five sacred mountains (五岳), and emperors climbed Mount Tai (泰山) for over 2,000 years to speak with heaven. Confucius climbed it too and said the world looked small from the top. Chinese landscape painting is literally called 山水 — "mountains and water" — and empty mist in those paintings is as important as the ink.

Use it in a real word

山水
shānshuǐ ·
landscape — literally "mountains and water", also the name of Chinese landscape painting
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