斩 zhǎn to chop
to chop; to cut; to sever; to behead
How it came to be
A cart and an axe, side by side. It was one kind of execution, the body pulled apart between carts, and the axe was added to show how it ended.
How it is used
- To chop through / behead - vivid, forceful, mostly in set phrases now.
- 斩钉截铁 (zhǎndīng-jiétiě), chopping nails and cutting iron, means resolute and unequivocal; 斩草除根 (zhǎncǎo-chúgēn) means to eliminate a problem at its root.