adjective #13,199

Meanings

  1. 1 imperial
  2. 2 royal
  3. 3 (literary) to drive (a carriage)
  4. 4 (literary) to govern

Examples

Zhè shì yīdào yù shàn.
This is an imperial dish.

Tips

usage
As a bound form, appears in compounds: 花园 (imperial garden), 防御 (defense), 驾御 (to control/drive). Rarely used alone in modern Chinese.

Components

radical
chì
step (radical form)
Left step radical — half of , picturing a small footstep. Indexes in the motion-and-control family with to go, slowly, to wait. Anchors the meaning: originally describes a charioteer driving forward, then 'to govern, to handle,' and finally the imperial 'royal driving' that gave the emperor his domain.
phonetic
xiè
to unload; remove harness
Right supplies the sound — xiè drifting to yù via initial alternation. Beautifully, itself depicts removing a horse from its harness after a journey. Combined with the step radical, reads as 'driving and reining in' — the charioteer's full skill of starting and stopping, which extended to the emperor's mastery over his realm.

Stroke Order