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降

xiáng / jiàng
verb #3,853

Meanings

  1. 1 to surrender; to capitulate
  2. 2 to subdue; to conquer; to tame

Examples

HSK 7-9
敌军最终投降了。
Díjūn zuìzhōng tóuxiáng le.
The enemy troops finally surrendered.
HSK 7-9
他宁死不降。
Tā nìngsǐ bù xiáng.
He would rather die than surrender.
HSK 7-9
孙悟空降龙伏虎，无所不能。
Sūn Wùkōng xiánglóngfúhǔ, wúsuǒbùnéng.
Sun Wukong vanquishes dragons and tigers - there's nothing he cannot do.

Tips

usage
xiáng is a focused reading: 'to lay down arms' or, transitively, 'to bring something fierce under control'. The everyday compound is 投降 (surrender). The transitive subdue-sense is more literary or fantasy-flavoured: 降伏 / 降服 to subdue, and the four-character 降龙伏虎 (vanquish dragons and tigers) - a staple of martial-arts and mythology language.
mistakes
Outside the surrender / subdue family, 降 is the jiàng reading (descend, drop, lower - see the jiàng entry). A quick test: if the sentence is about giving in or bringing something wild to heel, xiáng; if it's about temperature, prices, planes landing, rain falling - jiàng.

Components

radical
阝 fù
mound; hill (left-阝)
Left ear 阝 - the side-form of 阜 (mound), Kangxi #170. On the LEFT it always means 'hill, slope, stepped earth'; on the RIGHT it would be 邑 (city). 降 originally pictured feet stepping down a hill, hence 'descend, fall, lower.' Same radical in 院, 阶, 险, 阳, 阴.
semantic
夅 xiáng
two feet stepping down
Right side 夅 - two downward-pointing feet, the original picture of someone stepping off a height. Together with the hill on the left this gives the literal scene of descending a slope. 夅 is rarely seen alone today, but survives as the phonetic-semantic core of 降 and 隆.

Stroke Order

降 xiáng