邑 (yì): city; town (archaic)

Meanings

1 city; town (archaic)
2 fief; feudal estate
3 (historical) feudal subordinate state

Characters

邑

yì

city; town; fief

Examples

古代的邑就是今天的城镇。

Gǔdài de yì jiùshì jīntiān de chéngzhèn.

An yi in ancient times is what we call a town today.

君惠徼福于敝邑之社稷。

Jūn huì jiǎo fú yú bì yì zhī shè jì.

May your lordship invoke fortune upon the altars of our humble state.

Tips

history

In oracle-bone script 邑 is a city wall (囗) over a kneeling person — together depicting an inhabited settlement. In ancient feudal vocabulary 敝邑 ('our humble city/state') is a polite self-reference for one's own state. The character is also one of the 214 Kangxi radicals; in compound characters it appears as the right-side ear-shaped 阝 (e.g. 都, 邦, 郡).

memory

Spot 邑 inside the right-side 阝 in city/region characters: 都 (capital), 邦 (state), 郡 (commandery), 郭 (outer wall) — all carry the 'settlement' meaning from 邑.

Components

pictograph

邑 yì

city; walled settlement

Compound pictograph: the upper square depicts a walled settlement viewed from above, and the lower curved figure depicts a kneeling person — the inhabitants. A walled town with its people. The square is NOT 口 mouth despite the visual coincidence. 邑 is Kangxi radical #163 and the source of the right-side city radical 阝 in 都 capital, 郭 outer wall, 邦 state.

Radical

City Kangxi #163

The city/settlement radical. An ideograph of an enclosure 囗 over a kneeling figure — a populated walled area. As a free word it is archaic, but in compound position the right-side variant 阝 is one of the most productive cues for place names and regions: 都, 部, 邦, 郡, 邻, 郎, 郊, 郭. Right-side only — left-side 阝 is a separate radical (阜).