What does a horse at a gate have to do with breaking and entering? Let’s find out.

The Chinese word 闯入 [闖入] means to break into, to barge into, to intrude (into), to charge in, or to gate-crash. It’s pronounced chuǎngrù in Mandarin and cong² jap⁶ in Cantonese. It’s also found in Japanese as 闖入 (chinnyū), meaning instrusion or forced entry [source].

What’s that all got to do with horses and gates?

Well, the first character, 闯 [闖] means to rush, to charge, to dash, to break through, to temper oneself (through battling hardships) in Mandarin and Cantonese [source 1], [source 2], and to rush in or burst in in Japanese [source]. It’s made up of the characters 门 [門] (mén / mun⁴ / mon), meaning gate, door, entrance, and 马 [馬] (mǎ / maa⁵ / ba), meaning horse. It’s an ideogrammic compound that could be interpreted as a horse rushing through a gate [source].

The second character, 入 means to enter, go into, join and various other things in Chinese, and to enter or insert and so on in Japanese [source].

The character 闯 [闖] also appears in words such as:

• 闯荡 [闖盪] (chuǎng​dàng / cong² dong⁶) = to leave home to work, to get away from home, to wander the world, well-traveled, adventurous (Mandarin & Cantonese)
• 闯祸 [闖禍] (chuǎngguò / cong² wo⁶) = to get into trouble, to suffer disaster, to suffer an accident, to induce or cause a disaster or misfortune (Mandarin / Cantonese)
• 私闯 [私闖] (sī​chuǎng / si¹ cong²) = to enter (a place) without permission, to intrude into (Mandarin / Cantonese)
• 闯关者 [闖關者] (chuǎng​guān​zhě​ / cong² gwaan¹ ze²) = gate-crasher, person who crashes through a barrier (Mandarin / Cantonese)
• 闖入者 (chinnyūsha) = to intruder or trespasser (Japanese)
• 闖入する (chinnyū suru) = to intrude or break in (Japanese)

Sources: Wiktionary, MDBG, CC-Canto, jisho