一揽子
yī lǎn zi · HSK 7
all-inclusive
🤲📦 一 one + 揽 gather-in-arms + 子 = one armful, everything scooped up together
揽 lǎn means to gather or grasp into your arms. 一揽子 is one big armful — a whole bundle grabbed at once, hence a package deal that takes everything in without picking and choosing.
一 — single horizontal stroke
一 is one of the simplest pictographs in Chinese, depicting a single horizontal line to represent the number one. It has retained essentially the same form since oracle bone script over 3,000 years ago. By extension it also means 'first,' 'whole,' or 'same.'
揽 — hand radical 扌 + 览 (lǎn, to view)
A semantic-phonetic compound: the hand radical 扌 supplies the meaning 'to grasp, gather in,' while 览 (lǎn) gives the sound. The simplified form reduces the traditional 攬, but the logic is the same — a hand pulling things together, extended to senses like 'embrace,' 'monopolize,' or 'take charge of.'
子 — pictograph of a baby/child with arms out
子 began as a pictograph of a swaddled infant with a large head and outstretched arms, originally meaning 'baby' or 'child.' From there it broadened to 'son,' 'offspring,' and a respectful suffix for masters like 孔子 (Confucius). It also became one of the twelve earthly branches.