疆 (jiāng): border; frontier

Meanings

1 border; frontier
2 boundary; territory

Characters

疆

jiāng

border; territory

Examples

新疆在中国的西北边。

Xīnjiāng zài Zhōngguó de xīběi biān.

Xinjiang is in the far northwest of China.

一代代战士守卫着祖国的边疆。

Yídài dài zhànshì shǒuwèi zhe zǔguó de biānjiāng.

Generations of soldiers have guarded the country's frontier.

Tips

memory

Picture the right side as fields (田) stacked with dividing lines between them: that is exactly a 疆, the boundary line marking off territory. Common in 边疆 (frontier) and 疆域 (territory).

Components

semantic

弓 gōng

bow

The left side is a bow 弓 holding a small 土 (earth), evoking measuring out land with a bow as a measuring tool when fixing a boundary.

phonetic

畺 jiāng

field boundary

The right side is two fields 田 with lines drawn between and around them. It both gives the sound jiāng and pictures the dividing borders themselves, the heart of this character's meaning.

Filed under radical 田 (tián, #102) by convention. 田 is not a separate component in 疆, so no strokes are highlighted.