燦
càn

vivid

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire

fire

粲
粲 Sound component
càn polish

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰaːns

說文解字

燦爤，明瀞皃。从火粲聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

灿 càn vivid Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 山 represents the sound. Simplified form of 燦.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
山
山 Sound component
shān mountain

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode