鬯 (chàng) · fragrant sacrificial wine (made from black millet…

Meanings

1 fragrant sacrificial wine (made from black millet and turmeric, used in ancestral rites)
2 (literary, archaic) the indexing form for Kangxi radical #192

Characters

鬯

chàng

fragrant ritual wine

Pictograph of a vessel containing grain that has been mashed for fermentation - the dots inside represent the millet.

Examples

HSK 7-9

古代祭祀时要献鬯酒。

Gǔdài jìsì shí yào xiàn chàng jiǔ.

In ancient sacrificial rites, fragrant chang wine was offered.

Tips

history

鬯 names a specific Zhou-era ritual wine: black millet (黑黍) brewed with the aromatic herb 郁金 (turmeric / curcuma). It was poured during ancestral sacrifices, royal investitures, and welcoming envoys. The graph itself depicts a vessel with grain dots inside - the brewing pot.

usage

Almost never used in modern Chinese. You will mainly encounter 鬯 in classical texts (《周礼》, 《礼记》) or in compound names like 秬鬯 (the formal term for the ritual wine). As Kangxi radical 192 it indexes only a couple of derivative characters (鬱 luxuriant, simplified 郁).

Components

pictograph

鬯 chàng

sacrificial millet wine

An ancient drawing of a covered ritual vessel with black millet grains inside and a small ladle (匕) at the bottom - the scene depicts brewing 鬯, the fragrant turmeric wine poured during ancestral rites. 鬯 is Kangxi radical 192 and is best treated as a unitary pictograph; the inner element has no independent reading.

Radical

Ritual Wine Kangxi #192

An archaic radical for fragrant ritual wine, almost vestigial in modern Chinese. The Kangxi list groups it with a tiny family of derivatives - most notably 鬱 (luxuriant / depressed, simplified 郁), historically because the aromatic 鬱金 turmeric was a key brewing ingredient. The character itself preserves the image of millet in a brewing pot.

Used in

Showing 1 of 1 · default form 鬯

鬯 chàng

fragrant sacrificial wine (made from black millet and turmeric, used in ancestral rites) · (literary, archaic) the indexing form for Kangxi radical #192