车 (jū) · rook (in Chinese chess), war chariot (archaic)

Meanings

1 rook (in Chinese chess)
2 war chariot (archaic)

Characters

车

jū

rook (in Chinese chess)

Examples

HSK 7-9

在中国象棋里，车走直线，和国际象棋的车完全一样。

Zài Zhōngguó xiàngqí lǐ, jū zǒu zhíxiàn, hé guójì xiàngqí de jū wánquán yíyàng.

In Chinese chess, the rook moves in a straight line, exactly like the rook in international chess.

HSK 7-9

他用炮吃了我的车。

Tā yòng pào chī le wǒ de jū.

He took my rook with his cannon.

Tips

register

Read jū only when 车 refers to a piece in Chinese chess (中国象棋), or in classical texts where it means "war chariot". Every modern vehicle sense - cars, trains, bikes, lathes - is 车. Even compounds that mean "chariot" today (战车, 马车, 余车) use chē - the jū reading does not extend to compounds outside the chess board.

culture

The 32-piece 中国象棋 set has two 车 per side (the corner pieces), and they are the strongest pieces on the board - moving any distance along a rank or file, like a rook. Players often shout the reading jū at the board to distinguish it from 车 in surrounding speech.

Components

pictograph

车 jū

rook; war chariot

Same glyph as 车 - a top-down pictograph of a chariot simplified from traditional 車 in the 1956 reform. The jū reading preserves the older military sense: in Warring States and Han texts 车 referred specifically to the war chariot, a four-horse battle platform. That sense survived into the chessboard, where each side's two corner pieces - analogous to the rook - kept the archaic reading. Modern transport vocabulary all shifted to chē; jū is now a frozen chess-and-classical reading.

Radical

Vehicle Kangxi #159

The vehicle radical. Originally a top-down pictograph of a cart with axle and two wheels (traditional 車). Productive in vehicle, transport, and military-engineering vocabulary: 轮 (wheel), 输 (transport/lose), 软 (soft, originally pliable wagon), 转 (turn), 较 (compare, lit. measure carriage axles), 辆 (measure word for vehicles), 辙 (rut).