Auspicious five-colored clouds gathered over the imperial city.
Tips
usage
Compounds: 矞皇 (splendid and majestic — a stock phrase in palace inscriptions and rare in modern prose), 矞云 (five-colored auspicious cloud). The character also appears occasionally in personal names — 矞 conveys lustre and good omen.
register
Pure literary register. You encounter 矞 in stele inscriptions, classical poetry, and elegant given names. Modern equivalents: 辉煌 (splendid) or 祥瑞 (auspicious omen).
Upper element 矛-like — the 《说文》 analysed the graph as a spear-tip element bursting through, sending light outward. Reads as 矞, and serves as phonetic in 橘 (tangerine), 谲 (cunning), 燏.
Lower 冏-shape — depicts light streaming through a latticed window, reinforcing the 'brilliant / glowing' sense. The combination of 'piercing through' and 'bright' yields 'radiant splendor'. Indexed under Kangxi #110 矛 by tradition.
