辕 (yuán): shaft (of a cart or carriage)

Meanings

1 shaft (of a cart or carriage)
2 government office; yamen gate

Characters

辕

yuán

cart shaft

Examples

HSK 4

马被套在两根车辕之间。

Mǎ bèi tào zài liǎng gēn chēyuán zhījiān.

The horse was harnessed between the two shafts.

HSK 7-9

想去南方却南辕北辙。

Xiǎng qù nánfāng què nányuánběizhé.

To want to go south but drive the shafts north - heading the wrong way.

Tips

culture

辕 is the wooden shaft of a cart. The idiom 南辕北辙 - 'shafts pointed south but tracks running north' - describes acting in a way that defeats your own goal.

Components

radical

车 chē

cart; vehicle

The vehicle radical on the left, a simplified picture of a cart seen from above. It marks the character as a part of a cart - here the draft shaft. It groups 辕 with 轮, 轴, and 辙.

phonetic

袁 yuán

phonetic component

Supplies the sound, read identically as yuán. It works purely as a pronunciation marker; the same element gives 园 and 猿 their reading.