晏 (yàn): Yan (a Chinese surname)

Meanings

1 Yan (a Chinese surname)
2 (literary) late, calm, peaceful

Characters

晏

yàn

Yan (surname) / late / peaceful

Examples

晏殊是北宋著名词人。

Yàn Shū shì Běisòng zhùmíng cí rén.

Yan Shu was a famous lyric poet of the Northern Song dynasty.

他姓晏，名清，是我的同事。

Tā xìng Yàn, míng Qīng, shì wǒ de tóngshì.

His surname is Yan and his given name is Qing — he's my colleague.

Tips

culture

As a single character 晏 also has a literary meaning of 'late' (as in 晏起 'to rise late') and 'peaceful' (as in 河清海晏 'rivers clear and seas calm' — a peaceful era). The character pictures the sun 日 over a 安 'peace' element.

Components

radical

日 rì

sun; day

Sun radical at the top, the indexing radical. 晏 means late in the day or calm and at ease — both senses anchored in time-of-day imagery, the sun riding high and steady. The radical places 晏 in the sun family with 时 hour, 早 early, 晚 late, 晴 clear-sky.

phonetic

安 ān

peace; calm (here phonetic)

Bottom 安 supplies the sound — ān shifting to yàn. There is a quiet semantic echo: 安 means at peace, and 晏 carries the same untroubled sense in compounds like 安晏. Best known today as the surname of Spring and Autumn statesman 晏婴.

In Pop Culture

晏婴 Yàn Yīng

Yan Ying

Spring and Autumn period statesman of the State of Qi (c. 578-500 BCE), famous for his sharp wit and short stature; subject of the classic 晏子春秋 (Annals of Master Yan).

晏殊 Yàn Shū

Yan Shu

Northern Song dynasty poet and prime minister (991-1055), one of the great early ci-poetry writers.