仕 (shì) · to serve as an official, to take up a government post

Meanings

1 to serve as an official
2 to take up a government post

Characters

仕

shì

to serve as an official; official

Examples

HSK 6

学而优则仕，是古代读书人的目标。

Xué ér yōu zé shì, shì gǔdài dúshūrén de mùbiāo.

"Excel in learning, then serve as an official" was the goal of scholars in ancient times.

HSK 7-9

他年轻时出仕，为国效力。

Tā niánqīng shí chū shì, wèi guó xiàolì.

He entered government service when young, serving the country.

Tips

register

仕 is a classical/literary character. It appears in 出仕 (to enter officialdom), 仕途 (official career path), and the Confucian saying 学而优则仕.

usage

In Chinese chess (象棋), 仕 refers to the two advisor pieces that guard the general on the red side.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person

Left person radical, the side form of 人. 仕 is the verb 'to serve as an official,' so the radical names what kind of person is doing the serving. Indexes the character in the human-role family (任 duty, 仁 benevolence, 信 trust).

phonetic

士 shì

scholar; officer

Right 士 supplies the sound shì directly with no shift, and pulls a strong semantic load too: 士 already meant a member of the ruling scholar-official class, the literati who staffed the imperial bureaucracy. Adding the person radical makes the verb explicit - a person being a 士, taking office.