燃烧
rán​shāo HSK4

burn

燃 rán burn

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 然 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
然
然 Sound component
rán, ran yes

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyenC.na[n] burn

說文解字

《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

烧 shāo burn Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 尧 represents the sound. Simplified form of 燒.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
尧
尧 Sound component
yáo a legendary ancient emperor-sage

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

燒 shāo burn Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 堯 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
堯
堯 Sound component
legendary ancient emperor-sage

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyew[ŋ̊]ew burn

說文解字

《說文》：“燒，爇也。从火，堯聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)