国 | guó

In Mandarin Chinese, 国 (Pinyin: guó 🔊) means “country” or “nation”.

But how on earth jade 玉 in an enclosure 囗 came to signify “country”? In fact 国 is a simplified form of 國, and this latter character is a combination of 囗 and 或. Although 玉 is not a simplified form of 或 in its contemporary use (huó), 或 used to be an original form of 域, “range” or “territory”, and was pronounced just like 玉 (yù).

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