The Chinese word 国家 (guójiā) is formed through the conceptual fusion of two ancient pictographs: 国, which originally depicted a walled city or territory, representing the sovereign "state" or "nation", and 家, which depicted a pig under a roof, symbolizing the "household" or "family". Their combination into a single term embodies the traditional Chinese philosophical view that a nation is not merely a political entity but is fundamentally an extended family, a collective homeland that integrates the idea of a governed realm with the intimate, foundational unit of society. Thus, the word conceptually constructs the meaning of "country" by merging the external structure of the state with the internal sense of home and belonging.