How to Write 烂 (làn) — Meaning “rotten; mushy; brilliant”

Imagine a fire (火) burning an orchid (兰) until it becomes mushy and rotten. Alternatively, think of a brilliant (灿烂) fire that is so strong it makes fruit go bad. This connects the positive and negative meanings together.

Write the left radical 火 first: dot, left-falling, dot, right-falling; then the right side 兰: dot, dot, horizontal, horizontal, vertical. A common mistake is making the second horizontal stroke in 兰 too long—it should be shorter than the first. Keep the left part narrow and the right part slightly wider for balance.

烂 (rotten/mushy) has the phonetic component 兰, while 灶 (stove) uses 土 (earth) and 灸 (moxibustion) uses 久 (long time). Visually, 烂's right side has two horizontal strokes and a vertical stroke, whereas 灶 has a simple 土 and 灸 has a 久 with a curved stroke. Their meanings are completely different: 灶 is a cooking appliance, 灸 is a medical heat treatment.

烂 commonly describes spoiled food (烂苹果), worn-out items (破烂), or, in the word 灿烂, brilliant light or scenery. Culturally, 灿烂 is the only positive use and appears often in poetry and descriptions of sunshine. Colloquially, 烂 can also mean "very" in phrases like 烂醉 (dead drunk) but is informal.

Common words containing 烂 include: 烂苹果 (làn píng guǒ) — rotten apple; 破烂 (pò làn) — tattered / junk; 灿烂 (càn làn) — magnificent; splendid.