Study Chinese with Keats School: 火huǒ

There was no electricity or gas in ancient times. Heating food required the use of fire. The character “火” looks like a blazing flame. Since the people broke off a branch from the tree, drilled into the lumber and obtained fire from it, the civilization began to progress.

The top part of the character “炙zhì” consists of “肉ròu (meat)”, while the bottom part consists of “火”. The meaning of “炙” is “to roast meat through fire”. Since the Chinese people used fire to cook, character related to cooking all contain the character “火”. Examples of such characters include “灶zào (kitchen range)”, “烧烤shāo kǎo (barbecue)”.

Fire can also used as a source of illumination. Therefore, characters such as “灯dēn? (the lamp)” includes the component of “火”. When used as a character component at the bottom of other Chinese characters, it is often written as “灬”, such as “热rè (hot)”.

When someone gets angry or upset, it is as if the entire person has “caught fire”. Thus, we can use the expression “发火了fā huǒ le” to mean “got angry” or “blew a fuse”.