About
As a phono-semantic compound, 琮 combines the left-side radical 王, a variant of the jade radical, signifying its association with jade objects, with the right-side component 宗, which provides the pronunciation. The character refers to a specific ritual jade piece: a hollow cylindrical tube enclosed within a square or rectangular outer block. These artifacts served as ceremonial instruments in ancient state rituals dedicated to offering sacrifices to the earth, embodying the cosmological concept of a square earth. The character's construction reflects the precise terminology used to classify ritual jades by their exact geometric forms.
Etymology Hide
