舛 (chuǎn) · contradictory; in disorder

Meanings

1 contradictory; in disorder
2 misfortune; mishap

Characters

舛

chuǎn

contradictory; misfortune

Examples

HSK 6

他一生命运多舛，但从未放弃。

Tā yìshēng mìngyùn duō chuǎn, dàn cóngwèi fàngqì.

His life was full of setbacks, but he never gave up.

HSK 7-9

命途多舛。

Mìng tú duō chuǎn.

A life path full of misfortune. (set phrase from Wang Bo)

Tips

register

舛 is purely literary in modern Chinese - you only meet it in the four-character expression 命途多舛/命运多舛 ('a life beset by misfortune'), drawn from Wang Bo's 滕王阁序. Outside that idiom it appears only in classical and editorial writing.

history

Originally a pictograph of two feet pointing in opposite directions - visual symbol for contradiction and disorder, hence the extended sense 'gone wrong'.

Components

pictograph

舛 chuǎn

opposed feet; contradictory

Self-pictograph - two feet pointing in opposite directions, an ancient ideograph for contradiction and disorder. 舛 is itself Kangxi radical #136, the "opposing feet" radical, indexing 舞 dance and 舜 Emperor Shun. The right foot has no standalone modern character; the unit is treated as atomic.

Radical

Opposing Kangxi #136

The 'opposing-feet' radical. A compound ideograph of two feet facing in different directions - the visual root of 'contradiction' and 'mishap'. Almost no productivity in modern Chinese: 舞 (dance) is the one high-frequency resident, where the two feet read as moving legs. Mostly a structural slot in dictionary indexing.