门 | mén

In Mandarin Chinese, 门 (Pinyin: mén 🔊) is a word of many meanings, all of which are ultimately derived from “gate”:

1. gate; door; entrance; opening
2. valve; switch
3. knack, way of doing something
4. school of thought
5. class, category
6. measure word used for academic subjects, courses and branches of technology

门 is a simplified form of the traditional character 門. Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters describes 門 as a

depiction of a curving, double-doored gate, the doors adhering tightly in concealing what lies behind it.

It won’t surprise you then to know that a half of this character, 戶, means a single door.

I find the traditional character more pleasing aesthetically and easier to remember; the simplified one 门 is easier to write but it makes me think rather of a fridge door or power switch ⏻ than of the “real” gate.

The many compounds of 门 include

• 门 + 口 = 门口 (ménkǒu): entrance
• 门 + 人 = 门人 (ménrén): door guard
• 出 + 门 = 出门 (chūmén): to go out; to leave home for a far place; to get married (of a woman)
• 龙 + 门 = 龙门 (lóngmén): gateway to success; fame; glory
• 山 + 门 = 山门 (shānmén): monastery gate
• 水 + 门 = 水门 (shuǐmén): floodgate, sluice, water valve
• 玉 + 门 = 玉门 (yùmén): “jade gate” (literary, figuratively) palace; (euphemism) vulva

as well as Chinese toponyms such as

• 金 + 门 = 金门 (Jīnmén): Kinmen (Quemoy)
• 下 + 门 = 下门 (Xiàmén): Xiamen (Amoy)
• 天 + 安 + 门 = 天安门 (Tiān'ānmén): Tiananmen, “Gate of Heavenly Peace”.

And not just Chinese: for example, 水门, apart from “floodgate”, is also a literal translation of Watergate. As the back-formed suffix -gate is used in English to form the names of scandals (such as Climategate, Irangate, Nipplegate etc.), so does 门 in Chinese.

In Japanese, 門 is pronounced mon or kado. We already read a haiku by Buson featuring gates; here are some more:

埋火や 夜ふけて門を たたく音 許六 Umorebi ya yo fukete mon wo tataku oto A banked fire; It is deep night; Knocking at the gate. Kyoroku

門口に 來て凍るなり 三井の鐘 一茶 Kadoguchi ni kite kōrunari Mii no kane Reaching the gate, The bell of Mii temple Freezes. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos of gates, doors and sea glass @ Shutterstock.