diān
popculture

Meanings

  1. 1 abbreviation for Yunnan Province
  2. 2 Lake Dian in Kunming; an ancient kingdom there

Examples

Diān cài yǐ jūngū hé mǐxiàn wénmíng.
Yunnan cuisine is famous for its mushrooms and rice noodles.
滇池昆明西南
Diānchí zài Kūnmíng xīnán.
Lake Dian lies southwest of Kunming.

Tips

culture
is the one-character nickname for Yunnan, used on license plates and in compounds like 滇菜 (Yunnan cuisine). It comes from 滇池 (Lake Dian) and the ancient Dian kingdom that ruled the area before the Han.

Components

radical
shuǐ
water
The water radical on the left points to the original referent, 滇池, the great lake that gave the province its name.
phonetic
zhēn
true; real
supplies the sound (shifted from zhēn to diān); it carries no meaning, working only as the phonetic.

In Pop Culture

滇池 Diānchí
Lake Dian
Large freshwater lake southwest of Kunming, Yunnan; the source of the province's nickname and home to the Bronze-Age Dian kingdom.

Stroke Order

diān