The word 继承 is formed through the conceptual combination of two constituent characters. The first character, 继 (jì), carries the core meaning of "to continue" or "to follow after". The second character, 承 (chéng), contributes the meaning of "to bear", "to undertake", or "to receive". When fused, these ideas create a new, unified concept: the act of "receiving and continuing" what came before, which is precisely the notion of "to inherit" or "to carry on a tradition". It is a semantic compound where the combined meaning emerges from the interaction of its parts, like two threads woven into a single, stronger rope of meaning.