假山 (jiǎ shān) — ornamental rockery (in a Chinese garden); artificial hill made of piled stones

Definition

A decorative piled-stone hill built inside Chinese gardens — a cultural and design feature, not a real mountain. Pairs with 园林 and 亭台; built from rocks like 太湖石 to mimic natural scenery in miniature.

noun
ornamental rockery (in a Chinese garden)artificial hill made of piled stones
Measure word · 座

Examples

  • 假山。
    Zhè zuò gōng yuán lǐ yǒu yí zuò hěn dà de jiǎ shān.
    There is a very large rockery in this park.
  • 假山。
    Tā xǐ huan zài jiǎ shān páng biān hē chá shǎng jǐng.
    He likes to drink tea and enjoy the view next to the artificial hill.
  • 假山。
    Yuán lín shè jì shī yòng tài hú shí duī qì le zhè zuò jiǎ shān.
    The garden designer built this rockery using Taihu stones.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

假jiǎartificial
山shānmountain

Artificial in 假 and mountain in 山 together give a garden rockery.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
叚
叚jiǎ假jiǎ
Same sound today

假 pairs 亻 (person) with 叚, which gives the sound jiǎ.

Open 假 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

山 shows three mountain peaks side by side.

Open 山 →

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