Lesson 17 Knife 刀, Blade 刃, Endure 忍

May 19, 2018

We are going to learn the Knife symbol 刀, and two other related symbols, Blade 刃 and Endure 忍.

You may see the Endure symbol 忍 all the time on the wall of a karate dojo, as a calligraphy art.

Let’s start the writing of the Knife symbol 刀:

刀

knife

pronunciation: Dāo

The first stroke is an angle (almost 90 degree) with a little hook at the end. Then the second stroke is just a curved 丿 stroke.

This Knife 刀 is kind of hieroglyphic symbol as a knife shape with the blade facing left.

Now here is the second symbol, the blade symbol 刃, it’s the Knife symbol 刀 plus a short stroke on the blade side, to symbolize the blade part of a knife.

刃

blade

pronunciation: Rèn

The third symbol is the main symbol we must learn today, the Endure symbol 忍, it’s a Blade symbol 刃 added on a Heart symbol 心. This Endure symbol 忍 is a symbolic Chinese word, placing a Blade 刃 on the Heart 心, that’s called Endurance.

忍

endure

pronunciation: Rěn

The pronunciation is “Rěn”, which is a retroflex consonant in speaking Mandarin. I will add a reference link for practicing 3 available tones about Rén, Rěn, Rèn on the end of this article.

By the way, we have learned the Heart symbol 心 in Lesson 15, to recall your memory, here is the writing strokes for the Heart symbol 心: