The Chinese term for socialism, **社会主义 (shèhuì zhǔyì)**, is a compound word formed by combining two distinct morphemes: **社会 (shèhuì)**, meaning "society," and **主义 (zhǔyì)**, meaning "doctrine," "principle," or "-ism." It is a modern calque, or loan translation, from the Japanese term *shakai shugi* (社会主義), which itself was created in the late 19th century to translate the Western concept of "socialism." Structurally, it follows a common Chinese pattern of **modifier + head**, where "社会" (society) acts as the modifier specifying the domain, and "主义" (doctrine) acts as the head noun indicating the core concept, thus literally meaning "the doctrine of society" or "societal-ism," encapsulating the ideology focused on collective or public ownership and management of a society's resources.