About
The character 质, traditionally written as 質, derives from early practices of securing transactions, with its components 貝 indicating shell money and 斦 implying a balance or weight, thus originally denoting a pledge or collateral where goods were weighed. From this concrete sense of a material guarantee, the term gradually broadened to encompass the intrinsic nature or quality of things, referring to their fundamental substance. Later, it developed additional meanings related to interrogation and verification, as in questioning the core attributes of a matter, demonstrating a semantic extension from physical assurance to abstract assessment.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这个质量很好。
物质生活很丰富。
他的本质是善良的。
我质疑他的决定。
提高员工素质很重要。
量变会引起质变。
议员对政府进行了质询。
科学家通过实验验证物质的化学性质。