上诉
shàng sù · HSK 7
to appeal
⚖️ 上 up + 诉 sue/complain = take your complaint UP to a higher court
诉 (sù) means to tell, accuse, or sue; 上 (shàng) means up or to a higher level. To appeal is to push a lost case upward to a higher court. Sound link: sù rhymes with sue, and that is exactly what an appeal continues to do.
上 — horizontal line above a baseline
上 is an indicative character (指事): a short stroke placed above a longer reference line shows the concept of 'above' or 'up'. The earliest oracle-bone forms used two horizontal lines for this; the modern shape added a vertical stroke for clarity. The core meaning of 'upper, above, to ascend' has stayed stable for millennia.