Histories record that King Zhao died, using the special verb for a noble's death.
Tips
history
Not used in modern Chinese, where death is 去世. In classical ritual language each rank had its own death word: the Son of Heaven 崩, a feudal lord 薨, an official 卒.
culture
Using the wrong death word for someone's rank was a serious breach of ritual decorum in classical historiography — word choice itself signaled status.
The middle, a net-like 罒 block fused with a cover 冖 below it, is a stylized survival of the original phonetic top; it carries no independent meaning now.
