The word "东方" is formed by directly combining two pictographic and ideographic characters: "东" (dōng), which originally depicted the sun rising behind a tree, symbolizing "east", and "方" (fāng), representing a square or a region, meaning "direction" or "place". Together, they create a conceptual compound where the first character provides the core meaning ("east") and the second character broadens it into a spatial concept, resulting in the composite idea of "the eastern direction" or "the East".