钧 jūn unit of weight equal to thirty catties
How to remember 钧: 钅 gold + 匀 equal = unit of weight equal to thirty catties. At the market the gold trader puts two equal sacks on his scale, and each weighs exactly one unit of weight equal to thirty catties.
Component breakdown
形声 · Meaning + sound
One part gives the meaning, the other gives the sound.
钧 = 钅 gold + 匀 equal
- 钅 gold meaning
- 匀 equal sound
At the market the gold trader puts two equal sacks on his scale, and each weighs exactly one unit of weight equal to thirty catties.
How it came to be
Metal gives the meaning and the sign for even the sound.
How it is used
- An old weight unit (30 catties), alive today only in 千钧一发 (qiānjūn-yífà) 'a thousand catties hanging by a single hair' = a critical, hair's-breadth moment: 在千钧一发之际 (zài qiānjūn-yífà zhī jì) at the crucial split second.
- Also a formal honorific in old correspondence (钧鉴 for a respected addressee), now archaic.
- You essentially only need it for that one idiom.