兖 (yǎn) · Yan

Meanings

1 Yan
2 (classical) one of the Nine Provinces of ancient China

Characters

兖

yǎn

Yan (place name)

Examples

HSK 6

兖州是山东的一个古地名。

Yǎn zhōu shì Shāndōng de yígè gǔ dìmíng.

Yanzhou is an old administrative region in Shandong.

Tips

history

兖 has almost no standalone use today. It survives chiefly in 兖州, a district of Jining in Shandong, and as the name of one of the legendary Nine Provinces (九州) listed in the ancient 禹贡 geography.

register

Classical / proper-noun only - you meet 兖 in old geography and place names, not in everyday speech.

Components

ideograph

六 liù

graphic top portion (no number meaning here)

The top is written like 六 but carries no 'six' meaning - it is a stylized cap shape. Indexed under Kangxi radical 儿 (legs) by tradition; the radical is the bottom element, not visibly meaningful in the modern form.

phonetic

允 yǔn

to permit; sincere

The lower 允 is the sound element. The reading drifted from yǔn to yǎn, a common kind of phonetic-series shift; 允 contributes no meaning here.

Filed under radical 儿 (ér, #10) by convention. 儿 is not a separate component in 兖, so no strokes are highlighted.