xiān / lián
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (in 豨莶) St. Paul's wort, a medicinal herb

Examples

Xīxiān zài zhōngyī lǐ yònglái qū fēngshī.
St. Paul's wort is used in Chinese medicine to dispel wind and damp.
Yīshēng gěi tā kāi le xiē xīxiāncǎo zhì guānjié tòng.
The doctor prescribed some St. Paul's wort herb for his joint pain.

Tips

usage
In the xiān reading, is a bound character used only in 豨莶 (St. Paul's wort), a common rheumatism herb. A separate reading lián exists where it is a variant of .

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant
is the grass radical on top, the standard marker for plant and herb names — fitting for the medicinal .
phonetic
qiān
all; together (phonetic)
under the grass radical is the phonetic; the reading shifted to xiān (and lián). The same element appears in and .

Stroke Order

xiān