艰苦奋斗

艰

艱

jia̅n

苦

kǔ

奋

奮

fèn

斗

鬥

dòu

to struggle arduously

Characters and words in 艰苦奋斗

艰

艱

jia̅n = ji + an1

difficult / hard / hardship

艰 = 又 + 艮 : Joan of Arc (ji) dropped her boxing glove (又) in front of the anthill (an1). It got stuck to a chewing gum (艮) on the pavement and now she has a hard (艰) time removing it. Joan of Arc's life is really difficult (艰) at the moment.

艰

艱

jia̅n

苦

kǔ

difficult / hard / arduous

苦

kǔ = ku + Ø3

bitter / hardship / pain / to suffer / to bring suffering to / painstakingly

苦 = 艹 + 古 : Karl Koala decided to repent for his sins and retreated into a cloister inside the space station. There he leads a very simple life full of hardship, e.g. he gave up on eucalyptus and just eats very bitter artificial lawn.

奋

奮

fèn = f + (e)n4

to exert oneself (bound form)

奋 = 大 + 田 : Frankensteins Monster (f) and the robot (大) are exerting themselves (奋) by working on a field (田) in the encampment's bathroom ((e)n4).

奋

奮

fèn

斗

鬥

dòu

to strive / to struggle

斗

dǒu = d + ou3

abbr. for the Big Dipper constellation 北斗星[Bei3 dou3 xing1]

斗

dǒu = d + ou3

dry measure for grain equal to ten 升[sheng1] or one-tenth of a 石[dan4] / decaliter / peck / cup or dipper shaped object / old variant of 陡[dou3]

斗

鬥

dòu = d + ou4

to fight / to struggle / to condemn / to censure / to contend / to put together / coming together

斗 = ⺀ + 十 : Mnemonic symbol: a 斗牛士 (dou4 niu2 shi4) is a matador, who will represent 斗 when used as component.

The matador (斗) and Don Quixote (d) are fighting (斗) in the outhouse's bathroom (ou4) about who may use the bathroom next. The matador yields a holy cross (十) as a weapon, while Don Quixote (d) wisely chose a blossom (⺀) to cushion the crosses' blows.