坟 (fén): grave

Measure Word

一座坟 zuò

Meanings

1 grave
2 tomb

Characters

坟

fén

grave; tomb

Examples

清明节我们去扫坟。

Qīngmíngjié wǒmen qù sǎo fén.

We go to sweep the graves on Qingming Festival.

山上有几座老坟。

Shānshàng yǒu jǐ zuò lǎo fén.

There are several old graves on the hill.

Tips

culture

Grave-sweeping (扫墓/扫坟) during Qingming Festival is one of the most important Chinese traditions for honoring ancestors.

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Left-side earth radical — a pictograph of a clod of soil. Indexes 坟 in the land family alongside 地 ground, 城 city wall, 坑 pit. Carries the meaning: a grave is a mound of earth raised over a buried body — the radical names what the tomb is made of, dirt heaped above the coffin.

phonetic

文 wén

writing; culture (here phonetic)

Right side 文 supplies the sound: wén drifted to fén via a regular w/f alternation. 文 itself shows crossed lines, the pattern that became writing — that imagery doesn't transfer here. The simplified 坟 replaces the traditional 墳 phonetic 賁 with this shorter 文. Same w/f shift powers 纹 pattern, also reading wén.