Chinese character 焌

jùn means kindling fire; qū means extinguishing or flash-frying greens.

jùn and qū are Mandarin pinyin spellings, a system for writing Mandarin syllables with Latin letters. The Eastern Han dictionary Shuowen Jiezi records 焌 in a ritual from the Zhouli, an old text about ceremonies and ritual offices: a small fire is blown alight before a turtle shell is heated so its cracks can be read as an omen. In regional Chinese usage, qū also describes putting a burning object into water or quickly stir-frying greens in seasoned oil.

Why does 焌 have two readings?

The literary reading is jùn; qū is colloquial and regional.

Both are Mandarin pinyin: jùn has a falling tone; qū has a high, level tone. Pinyin keyboards may list 焌 under only one syllable, so try the other if it does not appear. Handwriting input is a fallback; the Cangjie Chinese input method uses 火戈金水.