How to Write 瘅 (dān/dàn) — Meaning “disease caused by heat; jaundice”

Picture a single (单) person lying in bed with a fever, covered by the illness radical 疒, suffering from heat exhaustion. This image combines the meaning 'disease caused by heat' with the visual parts: the sickbed radical and the phonetic 单.

Write the radical 疒 first: dot, dot, left-falling stroke, then left-falling stroke. The inner part 单 has 8 strokes: dot, left-falling, vertical, horizontal fold, horizontal, horizontal, vertical—be careful not to confuse the lower part with 十 or 早. Common mistakes include making the radical too wide or misplacing the horizontal strokes inside 单.

瘅 (dān) specifically refers to heat-related diseases like jaundice or heatstroke, while 疵 (cī) means a flaw or blemish, often on skin or objects, not a serious illness. 痊 (quán) means to recover or be cured, focusing on the result of treatment, whereas 瘅 describes the disease itself.

Today, 瘅 is rare in everyday speech but appears in classical idioms like 彰善瘅恶 (zhāng shàn dàn è), meaning 'praise the good and punish the evil.' It is also found in medical terms such as 瘅疟 (malignant malaria) and 瘅暑 (heatstroke), mainly in formal or literary writing.

Common words containing 瘅 include: 彰善瘅恶 (zhāng shàn dàn è) — praise the good and punish the evil; 瘅疟 (dān nüè) — malignant malaria; 瘅暑 (dān shǔ) — heatstroke.