About
The character 皴 (cūn) is a phono-semantic compound with the semantic radical 皮 (skin) and the phonetic component 夋 (qūn), which originally conveyed a sense of moving slowly. It was first used to describe chapped or cracked skin resulting from cold or harsh weather. Over time, its meaning expanded into Chinese art, where it became the technical term for "texture strokes", a key brushwork technique in landscape painting used to depict the surface textures and contours of mountains, rocks, and tree bark.
Etymology Hide
