炮 (pào) · cannon; artillery; gun

Measure Word

一门炮 mén

Meanings

1 cannon; artillery; gun
2 firecracker
3 cannon piece (in Chinese chess)

Examples

HSK 3

过年的时候放炮。

Guònián de shíhou fàngpào.

Firecrackers are set off during Chinese New Year.

HSK 6

他下象棋时走了一步炮。

Tā xià xiàngqí shí zǒu le yī bù pào.

He moved the cannon piece while playing Chinese chess.

HSK 7-9

古代的炮是用来攻城的。

Gǔdài de pào shì yònglái gōngchéng de.

Ancient cannons were used to attack city walls.

Tips

usage

炮 covers any explosive tube - military or festive. Military: 大炮, 炮弹, 炮兵. Festive: 鞭炮, 放炮. Figurative: 炮灰 (cannon fodder), 马后炮 (hindsight, named after a Chinese-chess move), 放空炮 (empty promises).

mistakes

炮 has a second reading 炮 for traditional medicine preparation - to roast or parch herbs in a pan. It survives in 炮制 (to prepare herbs by roasting; now also figuratively "to concoct, fabricate") and the historical torture 炮烙 (burning-pillar). Dictionaries also list a rare 炮 for quick-fry cooking, but in modern usage you'll almost never see it. Default to pào, switch to páo only for 炮制 and 炮烙.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Fire radical on the left makes the meaning explicit: anything explosive or igniting. It indexes 炮 in the fire-and-burst family alongside 烧 to burn, 烟 smoke, 爆 to explode. Originally 炮 named a roasting method (wrapping meat in clay and burning it); the cannon and firecracker senses came later as the fire-image broadened.

phonetic

包 bāo

to wrap; bundle

Right is 包 'to wrap', supplying the sound - bāo drifting to pào with tone shift and regular b/p alternation (e.g. 跑, 抱). 包 also leaks meaning since the original 炮 wrapped food in clay before roasting. Modern compounds keep the wrap-and-burst image: 鞭炮 firecracker (wrapped charge), 大炮 cannon (wrapped powder).