冈 (gāng): ridge

Meanings

1 ridge
2 mound
3 hillock

Characters

冈

gāng

ridge; hillock

Examples

小冈上长满了野花。

Xiǎo gāng shàng zhǎngmǎn le yěhuā.

The small ridge was covered with wildflowers.

他们翻过了一道山冈。

Tāmen fānguò le yīdào shāngāng.

They crossed over a ridge.

Tips

usage

冈 is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. It mostly appears in place names (井冈山, 冈山) and the compound 山冈 (mountain ridge).

Components

radical

冂 jiōng

open enclosure; borders

冂 on the outside is the open-enclosure radical, two posts framing an open space. In 冈 it draws the rounded silhouette of a hill seen from afar, hinting at the ridge that the whole character names.

ideograph

乂 yì

cross-strokes; mow

Inner crossing strokes act as an abstract indicator of crisscrossing slopes or paths inside the 冂 frame. Together with the framing wrapper they preserve just enough of the older 岡 silhouette to read as a low rounded hill, without analyzing into productive sub-parts.