皴 (cūn): (of skin) to be chapped; to cra…

Meanings

1 (of skin) to be chapped; to crack
2 texturing strokes in Chinese landscape painting

Characters

皴

cūn

chapped; texturing stroke

Examples

HSK 6

她的手因漫长的冬天皴得厉害。

Tā de shǒu yīn màncháng de dōngtiān cūn de lìhai.

Her hands were chapped from the long winter.

HSK 7-9

经常抹护手霜可以防止皮肤皴裂。

Jīngcháng mǒ hùshǒushuāng kěyǐ fángzhǐ pífū cūnliè.

Apply hand cream often to prevent the skin from cracking.

HSK 7-9

石涛把披麻皴发挥到了极致。

Shí Tāo bǎ pīmácūn fāhuī dào le jízhì.

Master Shi Tao perfected the hemp-fibre texturing technique.

Tips

usage

Two living senses. First, on skin: 皴裂 (chapped / cracked) - common in cold-weather skincare ads and pharmacy aisles. Second, in art: a 皴 is a named texturing stroke in landscape painting. Major schools are 披麻皴 (hemp-fibre), 斧劈皴 (axe-cut), 雨点皴 (raindrop) - each rendering different rock textures.

culture

In ink painting 皴法 is the system of broken, dry-brush strokes layered over outline contours to give stone and earth their grain. A connoisseur can date a scroll by which 皴 style its mountains use - the same word that names cracked winter skin names the cracks a painter puts on rock-face.

Components

radical

皮 pí

skin; surface

Right 皮 (skin) is the indexing radical - Kangxi #107. Anchors the meaning in surface / skin: the original sense is cracked human skin, and the painting term extends the same image to the 'skin' of a rock face.

phonetic

夋 qūn

phonetic element

Left 夋 gives the sound - same phonetic in 俊, 峻, 竣, 唆. The reading drifted from qūn to cūn - same series, slightly different palatalization.