禅

See also 禪, and 褝

Translingual

shinjitai	禅
simplified	禅
traditional	禪

Etymology

Simplified from 禪.

• Simplified from 禪 (示 → 礻 and 單 → 单) (2 strokes on top of phonetic) in simplified Chinese.
• Simplified from 禪 (示 → 礻 and 單 → 単) (3 strokes on top of phonetic) in Japanese shinjitai.

However, both forms represented by same Unicode code point – see Han unification.

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 礻 + phonetic 单 in current simplified Chinese form.

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 礻 + phonetic 単 in current Japanese shinjitai form.

Han character

禅 (radical 113 示+9, 13 strokes, cangjie input 戈火金田十 (IFCWJ))

1. meditation, contemplation (DKW: 24787'); "Zen".

References

• KangXi: not present, would follow page 844, character 17
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 24787
• Dae Jaweon: page 1265, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2402, character 7
• Unihan data for U+7985

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Cantonese

Hanzi

禅 (traditional 禪, Yale sim3, sin4 sin6)

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Japanese

Kanji

禅 (common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• Go'on: ぜん (zen)
• Kan'on: (rare) せん (sen)
• Kun: (rare) ゆずる (yuzuru), (rare) しずか (shizuka)

Compounds

禅刹 禅師 禅宗 禅定 禅譲 禅杖 禅僧 禅味

禅門 禅問答 禅林 吹禅 (すいぜん, suizen, “blowing meditation”) 坐禅 (ざぜん, zazen, “sitting meditation”) 座禅 (ざぜん, zazen, “sitting meditation”)

Etymology

Shortened from 禅那 (zenna, “Zen meditation practice”), from Middle Chinese 禅那 (chánnà), from Sanskrit ध्यान (dhyāna, “a type of meditation”); compare Pali झान (jhāna)

Pronunciation

• On'yomi, specifically goon
• IPA: [ʑẽ̞ɴ]

Proper noun

禅 (hiragana ぜん, romaji Zen)

1. Zen Buddhism

Synonyms

• 禅宗 (禅宗, Zenshū): the Zen sect of Buddhism

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Korean

Hanja

禅 (hangeul 선, revised seon, McCune-Reischauer sŏn, Yale sen)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

禅 (traditional 禪, pinyin chán (chan2), shàn (shan4), Wade-Giles ch'an², sh'an⁴)

Compounds

• 禅房
• 禅机
• 禅林
• 禅师
• 禅堂
• 禅院
• 禅杖
• 禅宗
• 禅让