yán
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 (archaic) rock; crag (old form of 岩)
  2. 2 an old place name in the state of Song

Examples

Xuányá shàng yǒu yí kuài jù yán.
There is a huge rock on the cliff.

Tips

history
Not used independently in modern Chinese — it is an old form of (rock, crag), preserved in classical text and as a Spring-and-Autumn place name. Today always write .
memory
Three mouths stacked over a mountain : picture jutting boulders piled on a peak — the very image of a rocky crag, the meaning kept by .

Components

radical
shān
mountain
The mountain radical at the foot places the heaped rocks on a peak, giving the full sense — a rocky crag on a mountain, exactly what means.
ideograph
pǐn
stacked lumps; rocks
The three boxes of here are not 'goods' but three piled boulders — jagged rocks heaped up, the picture half of this crag character.

Stroke Order

yán