Chinese character Kan

坎 means a hollow, pit, or sunken place. In the oracle-bone period, diviners carved questions on animal bones and turtle shells. An early form is 凵, an outline of a depression; another places 牛 inside it, interpreted as an animal buried in a pit as a ritual offering.

A later seal-script form—a rounded style of ancient Chinese writing—combines 土 (“earth”) with 欠, which supplies its sound. Classical Chinese uses 坎 for hollows, graves, ritual pits, and digging. The pit image survives in modern Chinese words such as 坎儿 and 坎坷, carrying it into figurative difficulty.

Why does 坎 mean hardship?

A hollow becomes a hurdle when the obstacle is figurative. In modern Chinese, 坎儿 can mean a sticking point or difficult stage; 坎坷 describes uneven ground and, figuratively, a life or course marked by setbacks.

Write 坎儿 for this figurative difficulty. 槛儿 uses 槛 for a threshold or railing, so it is a different word.

Is 坎 a water trigram?

Yes, in the Yijing (I Ching), an ancient Chinese divination text. There it is one of eight trigrams—three-line symbols—and represents water and the north. Its classical image also links a hollow with falling into danger; two 坎 trigrams stack into the hexagram of repeated danger.

Japanese also uses 坎, with two readings: カン (kan), a Chinese-derived reading, and あな (ana), the native Japanese word for a hole. Japanese usage also links it to hollows, distress, and the same Yijing trigram.