役 (yì): forced labor; corvee

Meanings

1 forced labor; corvee
2 military service; campaign; battle
3 servant

Characters

役

yì

forced labor; military service

Examples

HSK 3

这场战役持续了三个月。

Zhè chǎng zhànyì chíxù le sān gè yuè.

This battle lasted three months.

HSK 6

他服完了兵役。

Tā fú wánle bīngyì.

He completed his military service.

Tips

usage

Rarely used alone in modern Chinese. Most commonly appears in compounds: 战役 (battle/campaign), 兵役 (military service), 服役 (to serve in the military), 奴役 (to enslave).

Components

radical

彳 chì

step (radical form)

Left step radical (Kangxi #60), pictograph of the left side of an intersection, a half-stride. Indexes motion verbs and many service-related characters: 行 (walk), 役 (service), 征 (campaign), 待 (wait), 律 (rule). Anchors 役 in the going-out-to-serve family: military service involved marching out from the home town.

semantic

殳 shū

pole-weapon; striking-tool

Right 殳, pictograph of a hand wielding a long staff or club, the bamboo-pole weapon used in ancient Chinese armies. Combined with the step radical, the picture is a soldier marching with weapon in hand, exactly the conscript-for-military-service scene that gave 役 its meaning. From there extended to 'forced labour, corvée, servant duty' more generally (兵役, 战役, 劳役, 苦役).