四合院
sì hé yuàn · HSK 7
courtyard house (type of Chinese residence)
🏠 四合院 = four (四) + join (合) + courtyard (院): buildings on four sides joined around a yard
A classic Beijing residence where four wings enclose a central courtyard. The name is literal: 四 four, 合 joined/closed together, 院 courtyard. Four buildings shut together around one shared open space.
四 — enclosure 囗 + divide 八
Originally 四 was written as four horizontal strokes (亖), a simple tally for the number four. The current form, showing 八 (divide) inside an enclosure 囗, was borrowed during the Zhou dynasty and gradually replaced the older tally form. The shape is unrelated to its meaning today.
合 — 乛 (lid/roof) + 口 (mouth)
Originally a pictograph of a lidded vessel — a cover (亼) closing over an opening (口) — giving the core sense of 'come together, join, fit.' From 'fit/match' it extended to 'combine, unite, agree' and to measure-word uses. The reading hé reflects this 'joining' meaning.
院 — left ear 阝(阜) + complete 完
院 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left 阝 (from 阜, mound/hill) suggests walls or enclosed terrain, hinting at an enclosed space. The right 完 (wán) provides the sound and originally meant 'complete', so 院 came to mean a walled courtyard or institution like a hospital or academy.