盐 (yán) · salt

Meanings

1 salt

About the ingredient

调料 Seasonings

Fine white salt, sold in small bags. Most table salt in China is iodised; non-iodised salt is sold where the water is high in iodine and for people who need it. Soy sauce and bean pastes also salt many Chinese dishes.

Also called 食盐、盐巴

Used in 4 dishes

Characters

盐

yán

salt

The bottom component 皿 (dish/vessel) hints at a container holding salt.

Examples

HSK 2

少吃盐对身体好。

Shǎo chī yán duì shēntǐ hǎo.

Eating less salt is good for your health.

HSK 3

菜里放了太多盐。

Cài lǐ fàng le tài duō yán.

Too much salt was put in the dish.

HSK 5

请递给我盐。

Qǐng dì gěi wǒ yán.

Please pass me the salt.

Tips

culture

Salt was so valuable in ancient China that the government monopolized its production and sale for over 2,000 years. The salt tax (盐税) was a major source of imperial revenue.

history

The simplified character 盐 comes from the traditional 鹽, which was extremely complex (24 strokes). It's one of the characters most dramatically simplified.

Components

radical

皿 mǐn

vessel; dish

The vessel radical at the base indexes the character, picturing the dish or container in which salt was collected and stored. The radical preserves the original 鹽 / 監 semantic core - something gathered into and watched over in a vessel.

semantic

卜 bǔ

divination stick

The 卜 mark on the upper left is a simplification residue from the traditional 鹽 (which had 鹵 'rock-salt vat' on top of 監 'inspect'). The 1956 reform reduced the heavy top to a small two-stroke marker plus an earth element.

semantic

土 tǔ

earth; soil

The earth element next to 卜 carries a faint semantic flavour - salt as a mineral pulled from the ground. Together with the divination stroke it forms the simplified top half that replaces the older 鹵+臣 stack of the traditional character.