How to Write 炀 (yáng) — Meaning “to melt metal; to roast”

Visualize a campfire (火) with the sun (日) rising above it — the shape on the right looks like the sun over a horizon. This fire and sun combined create enough heat to melt metal (炀's meaning).

The left radical 火 must be written as 火 (not 灬) with the left stroke curving slightly. The right part 昜 has a horizontal stroke above the sun (日), and the lower component is 勿, not 易. Keep the overall width balanced — the left side is narrow, the right side wider.

灭 (miè) means 'to extinguish' or 'destroy', and its left side is 一 (one) over 火, while 炀 uses 火 plus 昜. 灯 (dēng) means 'lamp' or 'light', with radical 火 on the left and 丁 on the right. Unlike 炀, both 灭 and 灯 are common daily words; 炀 is rare and mostly appears in classical or technical contexts like metalworking.

炀 is not part of the HSK vocabulary and is rarely used in everyday speech today. It appears in few compound words such as 炀和 (warm and harmonious) or 炀金 (to melt gold), mostly in literary or historical descriptions. The character was also used in the name of Emperor Yang of Sui (隋炀帝), giving it a strong classical association.

Common words containing 炀 include: 炀和 (yáng hé) — warm and harmonious; 炀金 (yáng jīn) — to melt gold; 炀灶 (yáng zào) — to light a stove; a lit stove.