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.
用法
- 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.