A county deputy assisted the magistrate in running the local government.
Tips
history
丞 names a deputy or assistant official. The best-known compound is 丞相 (chancellor / prime minister), the top minister assisting the emperor; 县丞 was a lower county-level deputy.
The single base stroke, the indexing radical. Here it acts as the ground line beneath the lifting hands, completing the rescue-from-below picture.
semantic
氶chéng
to lift up; rescuing hands
Two hands raising someone, the old image of pulling a person out of a pit. It gives both the chéng sound and the core idea of helping and assisting from below.
