On Nüchuang Mountain there is a bird called the luan.
Tips
history
Not a free word in modern Chinese; it lives in fixed literary compounds such as 鸾凤 (a perfect couple) and 鸾镜 (a bride's mirror). The top 亦 here is a reduced phonetic for the luán sound, also seen in 栾 and 峦.
culture
Paired with the phoenix 凤 as a symbol of harmonious marriage, which is why 鸾 still turns up in wedding poetry and auspicious sayings.
On top, this is the simplified replacement for the old 龺-type phonetic. Across the simplified 亦-top family — 栾, 峦, 孪 — it consistently spells the luán sound, not its own yì reading.
