The Chinese word 耶稣 (Yēsū) for "Jesus" is formed through a process of phonetic transliteration, where two existing characters were selected solely for how closely their sounds approximate the foreign name "Jesus" when pronounced in Chinese. This practice was common when introducing foreign concepts, especially religious terms, into the Chinese language. The characters 耶 (yē) and 稣 (sū) carry little to no inherent semantic connection to the religious figure in this context; their primary function is to replicate the sound. The specific choice of these characters was standardized by early Christian missionaries in China, particularly during the work of figures like Matteo Ricci, and has since become the universally accepted written form for the name in Chinese.