chén
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 imperial palace
  2. 2 the emperor's residence
  3. 3 (by extension) the throne / the emperor

Examples

Zǐ chén diàn shì Tángdài huángdì jiējiàn dàchén de dìfāng.
Zichen Hall was where Tang emperors received their ministers.
Tā de míngzi dài yī gè chén zì, xiǎnde hěn yǒu qìpài.
His name contains the character 宸, which sounds very imposing.

Tips

usage
is a literary/classical character. Originally meaning 'deep eaves of a great house', it came to mean the emperor's residence and, by metonymy, the emperor himself (e.g. = the emperor's heart).
memory
Top radical ('roof') over ('celestial bodies / dawn') — a roof under the heavens, fit for the Son of Heaven (天子).

Stroke Order

chén