煽 (shān): to fan into a flame, to incite

煽 (shān) is a Chinese character meaning “to fan into a flame.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 火 (structural) and 扇 (structural). It ranks #2788 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 煽 to fan 扇 the flames 火; 扇 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire14 strokesFrequency #2788火 structural扇 structural

Definitions

  1. to fan into a flame
  2. to incite

Etymology & Origin

煽

ideographicTo fan 扇 the flames 火; 扇 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰火扇 (layout: left-right)

Components:火structural扇structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing 煽 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
煽动shān dòngto incite
煽动性shān dòng xìngprovocative
反革命宣传煽动罪fǎn gé mìng xuān chuán shān dòng zuìthe crime of instigating counterrevolutionary propaganda
煽风点火shān fēng diǎn huǒ(idiom) to fan the flames
煽动颠覆国家政权shān dòng diān fù guó jiā zhèng quánincitement to subvert state power (criminal charge used to gag free speech)
煽动颠覆国家罪shān dòng diān fù guó jiā zuìcrime of conspiring to overthrow the state
煽阴风shān yīn fēngto raise an ill wind
煽情shān qíngto stir up emotion
8
Total compounds
88
As first character
0
As last character
13
As middle character

煽 appears in 8 compound words: 88 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 13 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 煽 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

惑huò
0.6114,218 co-occurrences
颠diān
0.5301,020 co-occurrences
动dòng
0.52717,538 co-occurrences
叛pàn
0.4611,884 co-occurrences
乱luàn
0.4421,302 co-occurrences
嫌xián
0.4411,182 co-occurrences
覆fù
0.4391,578 co-occurrences
恨hèn
0.427690 co-occurrences
仇qiú
0.414786 co-occurrences
诽fěi
0.40584 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

煽风点火shānfēngdiǎnhuǒHSK 7+

to incite and stir up trouble

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

消防员迅速赶到，扑灭了熊熊大煽。

xiāo fáng yuán xùn sù gǎn dào , pū miè le xióng xióng dà shān .

Firefighters arrived swiftly and extinguished the raging blaze.

BastillepostMar 2026

据悉“一拳书馆”涉售《黎智英传》等煽动刊物 负责人及职员被捕

jù xī yī quán shū guǎn shè shòu lí zhì yīng chuán děng shān dòng kān wù fù zé rén jí zhí yuán bèi bǔ

It is reported that "One Punch Bookstore" was involved in selling inflammatory publications such as *The Biography of Jimmy Lai*; the store's manager and staff have been arrested.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

六旬翁FB发布130则煽动帖文 求情称是固执长者的宣泄 囚8月

liù xún wēng F B fā bù 1 3 0 zé shān dòng tiē wén qiú qíng chèn shì gù zhí cháng zhě de xuān xiè qiú 8 yuè

The sixty-year-old posted 130 inflammatory posts on FB, pleading for catharsis from stubborn elders, and was imprisoned for 8 months

Tatoeba

仇恨言论会煽动私刑。

Chóuhèn yánlùn huì shāndòng sī xíng.

Hate speech incites lynchings.

Character Family

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

灯dēng烦fán灰huī火huǒ烂làn炼liàn燃rán烧shāo烟yān灾zāi

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced shān

山shān删shān衫shān闪shǎn扇shān善shàn擅shàn膳shàn赡shàn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 煽 (shān) mean in Chinese?
煽 (shān) primarily means "to fan into a flame." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2788 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 煽 have?
煽 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 煽?
The radical associated with 煽 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 煽?
煽 is composed of: 火 (structural), 扇 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰火扇 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 煽?
Common words with 煽 include: 煽动 (shān dòng, "to incite"); 煽动性 (shān dòng xìng, "provocative"); 反革命宣传煽动罪 (fǎn gé mìng xuān chuán shān dòng zuì, "the crime of instigating counterrevolutionary propaganda"); 煽风点火 (shān fēng diǎn huǒ, "(idiom) to fan the flames"); 煽动颠覆国家政权 (shān dòng diān fù guó jiā zhèng quán, "incitement to subvert state power (criminal charge used to gag free speech)"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 煽 (shān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shān: 山 (mountain), 删 (to delete), 衫 (shirt), 闪 (to flash, to dodge), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 煽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 煽 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 煽 with real-time feedback

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.