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

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.

过年的时候放炮。

Guònián de shíhou fàngpào.

Firecrackers are set off during Chinese New Year.

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.

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).