砧 (zhēn): anvil

Measure Word

一块砧 kuài

Meanings

1 anvil
2 chopping block (literary)
3 stone for beating laundry

Characters

砧

zhēn

anvil, pounding block

Examples

铁匠在砧上敲打着烧红的铁。

Tiějiang zài zhēn shàng qiāodǎ zhe shāohóng de tiě.

The blacksmith hammered the red-hot iron on the anvil.

深秋夜里，远处传来阵阵砧声。

Shēnqiū yèlǐ, yuǎnchù chuán lái zhèn zhèn zhēnshēng.

On a late-autumn night, the sound of laundry-pounding drifted from afar.

Tips

culture

In classical Chinese poetry, 砧声 (zhēnshēng, the rhythmic sound of women beating laundry on a stone block) is a stock autumn image evoking longing — wives pounding cloth to make winter clothes for soldier husbands far away. See Li Bai's 《子夜吴歌》 (Wu Songs of Midnight): '长安一片月，万户捣衣声.'

memory

石 (stone) radical + 占 (zhān, occupy/divine) phonetic — but read zhēn here. Picture a stone block taking up space in the workshop or laundry yard.