箭
jiàn · HSK 6
arrow
🏹 竹 bamboo + 前 forward — bamboo that shoots forward
Arrows were traditionally made from bamboo shafts. The character combines bamboo (竹) with forward (前), capturing both the material and the motion.
箭 — bamboo radical 竹 + 前 (qián, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the bamboo radical 竹 on top signals the material, since ancient arrows were made of bamboo shafts, while 前 below supplies the sound (qián → jiàn). The original meaning 'arrow' has stayed stable from Classical Chinese to today.