艱

Arduousness. Specifically denotes a burden of weight, resistance, or exhaustion. It describes hardship as a lived experience—situations that are crushing or grueling—encompassing both physical hardship (labor, poverty, perilous travel) and situational or emotional distress (political peril, grief).

• Modifier: Modifies nouns of state or process.
• Noun: Denotes "hardship" or "adversity" as a condition one undergoes or overcomes.
• Adverbial: Modifies a verb to indicate that an action was performed under extreme pressure or with great difficulty.

• vs. 難 (nán): While both can be translated as "difficult," 難 typically refers to the possibility of success or a lack of ease in achieving a goal (technical/cognitive difficulty), whereas 艱 refers to the cost of the effort and the visceral strain of endurance.
• vs. 苦 (kǔ): Where 苦 emphasizes bitterness, pain, and internal suffering, 艱 emphasizes the external obstacle and the struggle against it.

Simplified variant: U+8270. Tang-period reading: *gɛn.

The glyph incorporates 艮 (gèn), suggesting a point of resistance, blockage, or a "stopping" force that must be pushed against.

• Register: In contexts of mourning, philosophy, or personal crisis, avoid overly clinical terms like "difficult"; "distressing," "agonizing," or "grueling" often better capture the emotional weight.
• Compounds: In pairs (e.g., 艱難), the meaning may generalize to a broad sense of "hardship." When appearing alone, the emphasis is more likely on the specific weight or pressure of the burden.