国会
guóhuì · HSK 6
Congress
🏛️ 国 (country) + 会 (meeting) = the country's meeting — Congress
A 国会 is literally where the whole country gathers to meet and debate. Every nation's parliament is just the national assembly — Storthing, Cortes, Oireachtas, Congress, all the same idea: the country's big meeting hall.
国 — enclosure 囗 + jade 玉
国 is a simplified form of 國. The outer 囗 represents borders or an enclosed territory, while the inner 玉 (jade) suggests a treasured realm ruled by a sovereign. The traditional 國 used 或 inside, depicting a guarded region with a weapon, later simplified by replacing it with 玉.
会 — 人 person on top + 云 cloud/say below (simplified from 會)
The traditional form 會 showed a lid over a vessel with contents stacked inside, depicting things coming together — hence 'meet, gather, assemble.' From 'gathering' it extended to 'meeting,' then 'understand' (minds meeting) and 'be able to.' The simplified 会 keeps only a schematic top and bottom.