瀛 (yíng) · ocean, sea

Meanings

1 ocean
2 sea

Characters

瀛

yíng

ocean / sea

Examples

HSK 4

东瀛指的是日本。

Dōng yíng zhǐ de shì Rìběn.

Dōngyíng (the Eastern Ocean) refers to Japan.

HSK 6

他乘船渡瀛，东游日本。

Tā chéngchuán dù yíng, dōng yóu Rìběn.

He boarded a ship across the sea and travelled east to Japan.

Tips

culture

Almost never appears alone in modern Chinese - it lives inside compounds and proper names: 东瀛 ('Eastern Sea' = literary name for Japan), 瀛海 (the great ocean), and the legendary immortal isle 瀛洲 said to lie in the East Sea. Common in poems, classical prose, and the personal names of writers and politicians.

memory

Notice the 氵 (water) radical on the left: anything to do with the sea. The right side is 嬴, the surname of Qin Shi Huang, which gives the pronunciation.

Components

radical

氵 shuǐ

water

氵 is the left-side form of 水 (water). It anchors 瀛 firmly in the great-water family: 瀛 specifically names a vast ocean or sea (东瀛 is a poetic name for Japan, literally the eastern sea). Compare 海, 洋, 湖, 浩.

phonetic

嬴 yíng

surname Ying; profit (archaic)

嬴 supplies the sound, unchanged. 嬴 is itself the rare ancient surname of the Qin royal house (秦始皇 was 嬴政), nudging 瀛 toward a grand, classical register. The same 16-stroke phonetic also drives 蠃 (snail) and 赢 (win).