卷 (juàn): scroll

Meanings

1 scroll
2 volume; chapter
3 examination paper
4 classifier for books, paintings (volume, scroll)

Characters

卷

juàn

scroll

Examples

HSK 4

老师正在批改试卷。

Lǎoshī zhèngzài pīgǎi shìjuàn.

The teacher is grading the exam papers.

HSK 5

这本书分上下两卷。

Zhè běn shū fēn shàngxià liǎng juàn.

This book is divided into two volumes.

HSK 6

他收藏了一卷古画。

Tā shōucáng le yī juàn gǔ huà.

He collected an antique painted scroll.

Tips

usage

The juàn reading covers anything paper-bound: paintings (画卷), scrolls (卷轴), exam papers (试卷, 考卷, 答卷), files and dossiers (卷宗, 案卷). Same character as juǎn 'to roll' - a scroll IS a rolled thing, just named for its final form rather than the action.

history

Before printed books, Chinese texts were written on bamboo strips or silk bound into rolls - one 卷 = one physical roll = one chapter. The chengyu 读书破万卷 ('read until ten thousand scrolls wear out') and 手不释卷 ('never put the scroll down') both preserve this scroll-as-book sense.

Components

phonetic

龹

rolled-up bundle shape

Top component (also atop 拳, 眷, 券) supplies the sound juàn/juǎn. The juàn reading takes the 'finished rolled object' sense of the bundling gesture: a scroll, a sealed exam paper, a bound volume. Indexed under Kangxi #26 卩 by tradition; the radical isn't visibly present in the modern form.

semantic

㔾 jié

kneeling person; sealed shape

Bottom 㔾 - a curved kneeling-figure form related to 卩. For the juàn reading, the folded-body shape evokes a closed, bound object: a sealed scroll, a rolled-up painting, an exam paper folded for submission. The sister reading juǎn keeps the active verb of doing the rolling.