擎 (qíng): to lift up; to hold aloft; to r…

Meanings

1 to lift up; to hold aloft; to raise (above one's head)
2 to support (literary)

Characters

擎

qíng

to lift up; to hold aloft

Examples

他高擎火炬走在队伍前面。

Tā gāo qíng huǒjù zǒu zài duìwǔ qiánmiàn.

He held the torch high and walked at the front of the procession.

众擎易举。

Zhòng qíng yì jǔ.

What many lift together is easy to raise. (proverb: many hands make light work)

Tips

usage

擎 is literary/elevated — everyday Mandarin uses 举 (jǔ) 'to raise' or 抬 (tái) 'to lift'. 擎 survives in fixed phrases (高擎火炬 'hold the torch high', 一柱擎天 'a single pillar holds up the sky') and in the modern compound 引擎 (yǐnqíng = 'engine', borrowed phonetically from English).

memory

Look at the structure: 敬 'respect' on top, 手 'hand' on the bottom — the visual logic is 'a respectful hand raised up', which fits 'lift on high'.

Components

radical

手 shǒu

hand

Bottom 手 — the full four-stroke hand radical, not abbreviated to 扌 because it sits at the bottom rather than the left. Indexes 擎 in the lifting family alongside 拿 to hold, 举 to raise, 抬 to lift. Names the act of hoisting high with both hands, palms upturned to support weight.

phonetic

敬 jìng

respect; revere (here phonetic + semantic)

Top 敬 supplies the sound: jìng drifted to qíng via a j/q alternation with finals change. 敬 also adds semantic flavour — reverence, careful uplifted handling — fitting an action like hoisting something aloft as if making an offering. The ceremonial register suits 擎天 'to prop up the sky'.