guān official; government; organ of body

Made up of [ mián roof radical 40]
Used as component in : guǎn
Made with 11 strokes.
Thought to represent a palace - two rooms under a roof, others say irreverently it is 'buttocks' under a roof representing the laziness of officials.

Related characters


Also uses mián component: ān (peace) bǎo (jewel) dìng (to set) (rich) gōng (palace) hán (cold) jiā (house) (customer) nìng (better) róng (to hold) shì (room) shí (real) song (Song) (it) xué (cave) (proper) yuàn (courtyard) zāi (disaster) (letter)

Sounds same

guān (shut) guān

Different tone

guǎn (building)

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Pronunciation

Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Proverbs

州官放火 zhōu guān fàng huǒ Bewailing pompous and incompetent officials. The story is that an official who did not want his name 'Deng' to be used in any official proclamation. The problem arose when the Lantern or 'Deng' festival was to be announced. Instead of 'Deng' he used the character for Fire instead and so announced the coming of Fire throughout the town - causing widespread alarm.
走官发财 zǒu guān fā cái Attain riches by work in government