坤 (kūn) is a Chinese character meaning “earth”. It is written from 土 (earth; soil) and 申 (a boxed 日 with one vertical stroke driven straight through it; used as the sound part in 伸 / 神), side by side, and takes 8 strokes.
Build the character for “earth”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
土 + 申
Left–right structure
- 土 earth; soil · tǔ meaning
- 申 a boxed 日 with one vertical stroke driven straight through it; used as the sound part in 伸 / 神 · shēn meaning
Structure from: 说文解字·土部: 坤，地也，易之卦也。从土从申
Memory aid
Earth (土) stands on the left; 申 on the right is a line driven straight through, top to bottom. Ground that reaches all the way down — 坤 is the earth itself.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
8 strokes
In real words
- 乾坤qián kūnheaven and earth; the universe坤 = kūn
Go deeper
All readings
earth
earth; the receptive, earth principle; Kun (☷), the second trigram of the Book of Changes
大地；《易经》八卦之一（☷），与「乾」相对，代表地。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 乾坤qián kūnheaven and earth; the universe坤 = kūn
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 坤 mean?
坤 (kūn) means earth; the receptive, earth principle; Kun (☷), the second trigram of the Book of Changes.
How do you pronounce 坤?
It is pronounced kūn.
What parts is 坤 made of?
土 (earth; soil) and 申 (a boxed 日 with one vertical stroke driven straight through it; used as the sound part in 伸 / 神), side by side. The recorded source is: 说文解字·土部: 坤，地也，易之卦也。从土从申. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 坤 have?
8. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 坤?
土. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 坤?
Common ones are 乾坤. The reading of 坤 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.