建康

Mandarin · pinyin Jiàn kāng

Meanings

  1. old name for Nanjing 南京, esp. during Southern dynasties
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

建
jiàn · build, establish, erect, found
康
kāng · peaceful, quiet; happy, healthy
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–1 · Jian4 kang1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links1same-tone record
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

建康 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

name

  1. (historical or archaic) former name of 南京 (Nánjīng), Nanjing (a city in Jiangsu, China), during the Sima Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties Eras of Chinese history

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack