Writing Balance Rule: The upper component should sit neatly atop the lower element without crowding, keeping the horizontal strokes parallel and evenly spaced.
1. Meaning
to boil, cook, or stew
to brew teato cook using a rapid stir-frying and sauce-mixing techniquehistorical judicial punishment of boiling a criminal to death
VerbFormal / Literary#cooking#culinary#history
Sample Usage
烹茶
pēng chá
to brew tea
烹调
pēng tiáo
to cook / culinary art
2. Sound
/[pʰɤŋ⁵⁵]/Tone: 55
烹
pēngpeng1
|
++
¯(55)
=pēng
Build the syllable
Step-by-step blending
peng
Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "e" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).
Initial Consonant
p
Type: Aspirated Bilabial
Sounds like: p sound in English 'pen'
Aspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: Strong puff of air! A tissue held before lips MUST fly forward.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Both lips pressed together, then released with a burst of breath.
Final Rhyme
eng
Vowel Group: -e vowel group
Sounds like: -eng rhymes with 'ung' in sung or the sound in 'eng' of eng-ine
Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'uhng'.
Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.
Tone
T1 (55)
5 → 5 (55)
1st Tone (High-Flat)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 stays flat and high like a single note sung steadily at the top of your speaking range.
👂
Listening trap: Do not confuse with the second tone (pēng rising to péng) or the fourth tone (pèng). Keep the pitch high and flat throughout.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 1 is a high, steady horizontal line. Keep your hand flat and steady at eye level, matching the high pitch of a musical note.
3. Writing
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 11 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The upper component should sit neatly atop the lower element without crowding, keeping the horizontal strokes parallel and evenly spaced.
4. Components
Radical灬 · fire radical (fire, heat, cooking)
Semantic Clue (形旁):灬 (indicates fire or heat used in cooking)
The character combines '享' (to enjoy / offering) on the top with '灬' (fire) on the bottom, representing the idea of preparing a delicious food offering over a fire.
享 upper part providing phonetic and sacrificial context
灬 lower fire dots representing heat and boiling
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
3· Phonetic Root: 亨 (hēng)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Originally depicted food or sacrifices being heated over fire. The top part '享' represents an ancestral temple or offering table, while the bottom '灬' represents flames.
Semantic Evolution: Shifted from sacrificial boiling of offerings in ancient rituals to general culinary boiling, brewing, and cooking techniques.
In ancient legal systems, 烹 referred to a brutal execution method where criminals were boiled alive in a giant cauldron.
6. Sinosphere
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: ホウ / Kun: にる
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
Imagine enjoying (享) a warm cup of tea brewed over a roaring fire (灬). You are boiling (烹) water in a kettle.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
亨
hēngprosperous; henry (unit of inductance)Phonetic Core (声旁)