坛 (tán): altar; platform (for ceremonies)

Meanings

1 altar; platform (for ceremonies)
2 circle; world (of a profession or field)
3 earthen jar; pot

Characters

坛

tan

altar; circle; jar

Examples

他在文坛上很有影响力。

Tā zài wéntán shàng hěn yǒu yǐngxiǎnglì.

He is very influential in the literary world.

天坛是明清两代皇帝祭天的地方。

Tiāntán shì Míng Qīng liǎng dài huángdì jì tiān de dìfang.

The Temple of Heaven is where Ming and Qing emperors held sacrificial ceremonies.

Tips

usage

坛 is used as a suffix meaning 'circle/world' for professional fields: 文坛 (literary world), 体坛 (sports world), 影坛 (film world), 歌坛 (music world), 论坛 (forum).

Components

radical

土 tǔ

earth; soil

Left earth radical — pictograph of a clod of soil on the ground. Anchors the meaning: an altar is a raised earthen platform, and an earthen jar is shaped from clay. Same family: 地 ground, 城 wall, 堆 pile, 墙 wall — all built up from soil.

phonetic

云 yún

cloud; to say

Right 云 supplies the sound in the simplified form — yún shifting to tán via the substitution rule of the 1956 reform, which replaced the heavier traditional 亶 phonetic with the lighter 云. The traditional 壇 keeps the older shape; 云 here carries no cloud meaning, just a compact phonetic placeholder.