煽 (shān): to fan (a flame)

Meanings

1 to fan (a flame)
2 to incite
3 to instigate

Characters

煽

shān

to fan into flame; to incite

Examples

他在背后煽动大家闹事。

Tā zài bèihòu shāndòng dàjiā nàoshì.

He incited everyone to cause trouble behind the scenes.

别煽风点火了。

Bié shānfēngdiǎnhuǒ le.

Stop fanning the flames.

Tips

usage

Often carries a negative connotation — inciting trouble or stirring up emotions. 煽情 (shānqíng) means 'to stir emotions' and can be positive or negative depending on context.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Left fire radical 火 — a flame with rising sparks, here in its full 4-stroke form rather than the 灬 dots underfoot. Carries the literal meaning: 煽 is fanning a flame, blowing on embers to revive them. Extended to inciting trouble (煽动 to incite) by the same English-style metaphor.

phonetic

扇 shàn

fan; door-leaf (here phonetic + semantic)

Right 扇 — a door 戶 over feathers 羽, originally meaning a door-leaf, then a fan made from bound feathers. Supplies both the sound shān (a tone-shift from shàn) and the action: working a fan to whip up flames. A rare phono-semantic where both halves of the right side pull their weight.