参照
cān zhào · HSK 7
to consult a reference
📖🔍 参 (participate/consult) + 照 (shine/illuminate) = shine light on a reference
When you consult a reference, you shine a light (照) on the source material by actively engaging (参) with it. Think of 照 as in 照片 (photo) — capturing info to check against.
照 — 昭 (bright) phonetic + 灬 (fire radical)
照 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bottom 灬 is a variant of 火 'fire', giving the meaning of light or illumination, while 昭 'bright' on top supplies the sound 'zhào' and reinforces the brightness sense. It originally meant to shine light on something, later extending to 'reflect', 'photograph', and 'according to'.