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This can be the Chinese ancient surname Gan or current surname Qian. In Japanese, it can be the surname Nukui, Susumu, Ken, Kan, Kawaki, Kawai, Inute, or Inui.
The meaning of this character varies a lot depending on context. These meanings include dry, clean, foster, adoptive, heaven, male, masculine, enduring, or continual.
The “Gan” version of this character was converted to Simplified Chinese as 干 in 1965. However, the “Qian” pronunciation is not associated with 干. Though to add to the confusion, there is an unrelated Simplified Chinese character 千 that romanizes as “Qian” and is also a surname.
韆 can be a Chinese surname, Qian.
The meaning of this character can be thousand, a large quantity, or a swing.
錢 is the simplest way to say “money” in Chinese.
It can also mean cash, coins, or currency. It's also a surname, Qian, in China.
This also means coins in old Korean Hanja and Japanese Kanji (though they use a slightly alternate form in Japan, as seen to the right). In both Japan and Korea, this can simply mean “one cent.”
On the left side of this character is a radical, which means “gold” (or metal, depending on context).
On the right are two repeated radicals which currently mean “small” or “narrow” but used to kind of mean “tools” or “weapons.”
It's a bit of a stretch, but you could suggest that money = “gold weapons” or “gold tools” in Chinese. Many Chinese people would argue otherwise depending on what they know of or the way they understand the etymology of the right side radical. I've seen some who say it means “industrialized gold,” but I take that to mean “raw gold turned into coins.”
Below are some entries from our dictionary that may match your Qian search...
Characters If shown, 2nd row is Simp. Chinese |
Pronunciation Romanization |
Simple Dictionary Definition |
千 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien yuki ゆき |
More info & calligraphy: Qian(numeric) 1,000; thousand; (female given name) Yuki sahasra. A thousand. |
錢 钱 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien chin ちん |
More info & calligraphy: Chien(out-dated kanji) (1) hundredth of a yen; (2) coin made of non-precious materials; (3) (obsolete) one-thousandth of a kan (as a unit of currency); (4) (archaism) one-thousandth of a kan (as a unit of mass); (surname) Chin coin |
韆 千 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
More info & calligraphy: QianSee: 千 |
前衛 前卫 see styles |
qián wèi qian2 wei4 ch`ien wei chien wei maee まええ |
More info & calligraphy: Guard(1) (See 後衛・1) advance guard; vanguard; (2) avant-garde; (3) {sports} forward (player); (surname) Maee |
抱歉 see styles |
bào qiàn bao4 qian4 pao ch`ien pao chien |
More info & calligraphy: Sorry / Feel Apologetic / Regret |
謙恭 谦恭 see styles |
qiān gōng qian1 gong1 ch`ien kung chien kung |
More info & calligraphy: Humble |
謙虛 谦虚 see styles |
qiān xū qian1 xu1 ch`ien hsü chien hsü |
More info & calligraphy: Humble / Modest |
謙遜 谦逊 see styles |
qiān xùn qian1 xun4 ch`ien hsün chien hsün kenson けんそん |
More info & calligraphy: Modesty(adj-na,n,adj-no,vs) humble; humility; modesty; being humble |
千里眼 see styles |
qiān lǐ yǎn qian1 li3 yan3 ch`ien li yen chien li yen senrigan せんりがん |
More info & calligraphy: Clairvoyance(1) clairvoyance; second sight; (2) clairvoyant clairvoyance |
仟 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien sen せん |
thousand (banker's anti-fraud numeral) (numeric) 1,000; thousand; (given name) Sen |
俔 伣 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien |
(old) like; as |
倩 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien sen せん |
pretty; winsome; to ask for sb's help; son-in-law (old) (adjective) (archaism) good-looking; attractive |
傔 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien |
servant |
僉 佥 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien sen |
all all |
兛 see styles |
qiān kè qian1 ke4 ch`ien k`o chien ko |
kilogram (old) (single-character equivalent of 千克[qian1 ke4]) |
前 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien misaki みさき |
front; forward; ahead; first; top (followed by a number); future; ago; before; BC (e.g. 前293年); former; formerly (1) in front (of); before (e.g. a building); (n,adj-no,adv) (2) before; earlier; previously; prior; ago; (minutes) to (the hour); (noun - becomes adjective with の) (3) (the) front; frontal part; fore; head (e.g. of a line); (4) forward; ahead; (5) (in the) presence (of); in front (of someone); (can be adjective with の) (6) previous (e.g. page); prior (e.g. engagement); first (e.g. half); former (e.g. example); (suffix) (7) (after a noun or the -masu stem of a verb) (See 一人前・1) portion; helping; (8) front (of one's body or clothing); breast (of a coat, kimono, etc.); (9) privates; private parts; (10) (colloquialism) criminal record; previous conviction; (a) prior; (personal name) Misaki pūrva. Before; former, previous; in front. |
嗛 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien |
pouch; hold; content |
塹 堑 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien sen |
(bound form) moat; chasm a moat [around a castle] |
墘 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien |
(Minnan dialect) beside; near; (used in place names) |
媊 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien |
planet Venus in the morning |
岍 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
name of a mountain |
岒 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien |
character used in place names |
嵌 see styles |
qiàn qian4 ch`ien chien |
to inlay; to embed; Taiwan pr. [qian1] |
幵 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
(literary) flat; level |
愆 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
fault; transgression |
慳 悭 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien ken |
stingy matsara; lobha; grudging, sparing, stingy, avaricious. |
扦 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
short slender pointed piece of metal, bamboo etc; skewer; prod used to extract samples from sacks of grain etc; (dialect) to stick in; to bolt (a door); to arrange (flowers in a vase); to graft (tree); to pedicure; to peel (an apple etc) |
拑 see styles |
qián qian2 ch`ien chien |
pliers; pincers; to clamp |
拪 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
old variant of 遷|迁[qian1] |
掔 see styles |
qiān qian1 ch`ien chien |
lead along; substantial |
The following table may be helpful for those studying Chinese or Japanese...
Title | Characters | Romaji (Romanized Japanese) | Various forms of Romanized Chinese | |
Qian | 乾 干 | ken | gān qián gan1 / qian2 gan / qian gan/qian | kan ch`ien kanchien kan chien |
Qian | 韆 千 | qiān / qian1 / qian | ch`ien / chien | |
Money | 錢 / 銭 钱 | sen | qián / qian2 / qian | ch`ien / chien |
In some entries above you will see that characters have different versions above and below a line. In these cases, the characters above the line are Traditional Chinese, while the ones below are Simplified Chinese. |
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All of our calligraphy wall scrolls are handmade.
When the calligrapher finishes creating your artwork, it is taken to my art mounting workshop in Beijing where a wall scroll is made by hand from a combination of silk, rice paper, and wood.
After we create your wall scroll, it takes at least two weeks for air mail delivery from Beijing to you.
Allow a few weeks for delivery. Rush service speeds it up by a week or two for $10!
When you select your calligraphy, you'll be taken to another page where you can choose various custom options.
The wall scroll that Sandy is holding in this picture is a "large size"
single-character wall scroll.
We also offer custom wall scrolls in small, medium, and an even-larger jumbo size.
Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.
Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.
There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.
Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.
The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over 6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt such a feat.
Check out my lists of Japanese Kanji Calligraphy Wall Scrolls and Old Korean Hanja Calligraphy Wall Scrolls.
Some people may refer to this entry as Qian Kanji, Qian Characters, Qian in Mandarin Chinese, Qian Characters, Qian in Chinese Writing, Qian in Japanese Writing, Qian in Asian Writing, Qian Ideograms, Chinese Qian symbols, Qian Hieroglyphics, Qian Glyphs, Qian in Chinese Letters, Qian Hanzi, Qian in Japanese Kanji, Qian Pictograms, Qian in the Chinese Written-Language, or Qian in the Japanese Written-Language.
75 people have searched for Qian in Chinese or Japanese in the past year.
Qian was last searched for by someone else on Apr 19th, 2025