辖 (xiá): to govern

Meanings

1 to govern
2 to have jurisdiction over
3 linchpin (literal, archaic)

Characters

辖

xiá

to govern / linchpin

Examples

这个区辖五个街道。

Zhège qū xiá wǔ ge jiēdào.

This district has jurisdiction over five subdistricts.

本案不属于地方法院辖的范围。

Běn'àn bù shǔyú dìfāngfǎ yuàn xiá de fànwéi.

This case does not fall within the local court's jurisdiction.

Tips

usage

辖 is mostly a bound form in modern Chinese — you'll meet it in compounds like 管辖 (to have jurisdiction over), 直辖市 (municipality directly under central government, e.g. Beijing), 辖区 (jurisdictional area), 所辖 (under the jurisdiction of). The original meaning was the linchpin pin that locked a wheel onto an axle, hence 'that which holds something in place / under control'.

memory

The 车 (chē, 'cart') radical recalls the original meaning: the 辖 was the metal pin keeping the cart wheel on. From 'pin that controls a wheel' it extended to 'authority that controls an area'.

Components

radical

车 chē

cart; vehicle

Left cart radical, the simplified form of 車. Originally 辖 named the linchpin — the iron pin driven through the axle to keep the wheel from coming off — so the radical is literal. From that tiny crucial pin came the modern sense: to have jurisdiction, to keep things in their proper place.

phonetic

害 hài

to harm (here phonetic)

Right 害 supplies the sound hài → xiá through a documented palatal-velar alternation. Same phonetic frame appears in 豁 (huō, to slash open) and 瞎 (xiā, blind). Pure phonetic; no harming-meaning is carried into 辖.