The Chinese word 中立 (zhōnglì), meaning "neutrality" or "impartiality," is a compound formed by combining two meaningful characters: 中 (zhōng), which means "middle," "center," or "within," and 立 (lì), which means "to stand" or "to establish." Together, they create a semantic concept where 立 acts as a verb, and 中 acts as an adverbial modifier of place. Thus, the literal and etymological sense is "to stand in the middle," graphically conveying the idea of taking a position that is not aligned with either side in a conflict or debate, thereby capturing the essence of being neutral.