灶

kitchen stove / kitchen

variant of 灶[zao4]

kitchen stove / kitchen; mess; canteen

Tu (ethnic group) / surname Tu

earth / dust / clay / local / indigenous / crude opium / unsophisticated / one of the eight categories of ancient musical instruments 八音[ba1 yin1]

fire / urgent / ammunition / fiery or flaming / internal heat (Chinese medicine) / hot (popular) / classifier for military units (old) / Kangxi radical 86

lit. to set up a separate kitchen (idiom); to start from scratch / back to square one / to start of on a new path

to give preferential treatment / to give special attention

mess hall for high-ranking cadres / (fig.) special treatment / cf. 大灶[da4 zao4]

to be given special treatment / to be treated in a favored way

large kitchen stove made from bricks or earth / (PRC) ordinary mess hall (lowest dining standard, ranked below 中灶[zhong1 zao4] for mid-level cadres and 小灶[xiao3 zao4] for the most privileged)

hearth

focal (medicine)

stove / cooker / (dialect) cooking utensils

stovetop; rangetop

mess hall for mid-level cadres / cf. 大灶[da4 zao4]

to fall (from power) / in decline / unlucky

"meals prepared at separate stoves", slogan of the program of fiscal decentralization that began in the 1980s in the PRC