将 (jiāng): will; shall; about to

Meanings

1 will; shall; about to
2 to take; to use
3 to checkmate
4 introduces the object of a verb

Characters

将

jiāng

will; about to; to take

Examples

我将在明天出发。

Wǒ jiāng zài míngtiān chūfā.

I will depart tomorrow.

将来你想做什么？

Jiānglái nǐ xiǎng zuò shénme?

What do you want to do in the future?

请将门关上。

Qǐng jiāng mén guānshàng.

Please close the door.

Tips

grammar

As an adverb 将 marks future action, similar to English "will" or "shall" — more formal than 要 and common in news, formal writing, and idiomatic phrases like 即将 (about to) and 将来 (the future). As a preposition it works like 把, fronting the object: 将 + object + verb (more literary than 把).

mistakes

Two main readings to keep apart: 将 (1st tone) for the adverb/preposition "will / about to / by means of", and 将 (4th tone) for the noun "general / military commander". A rare literary third reading qiāng (to invite, to request) survives only in classical poetry.

Components

radical

寸 cùn

hand; thumb's-breadth (radical)

Bottom-right thumb-and-hand radical (Kangxi #41) — three strokes, a hand with a dot marking the pulse-point one thumb's-breadth from the wrist. Indexes 将 as action-with-the-hand: holding, presenting, leading. Family 寺, 封, 射, 尉 all involve precise hand actions. Together: "evening meat held in hand" → present, lead, take.

phonetic

丬 qiáng

split-wood; bed (left)

Left half-tree element — simplified from 爿, originally a vertical wooden plank or bed-post (the left half of 木 split down the middle). In traditional 將 this piece was both phonetic (qiáng drifted to jiāng) and faintly semantic (a wooden support). It survives as the left side of 状, 壮, 床 — all carrying a faint plank or bed sense.

semantic

夕 xī

evening; meat-remnant

Top-right 夕 — graphically "evening" (a half-moon with a dot inside), but historically the stylised remnant of 月 "meat" from traditional 將. The image is an offering: meat held above an altar. Combined with the hand below, the ancient ritual of presenting meat — from which came the verb senses "to take, to lead, to command".