大宗
dà zōng · HSK 7
large amount
🏛️ big + ancestor clan = a great lineage or bulk quantity
大 means big, 宗 means ancestor or clan. Together they point to an influential old family line, and by extension any large-scale or staple quantity — the big ancestral stock.
大 — pictograph of a person with arms outstretched
大 is a pictograph showing a person standing with arms and legs spread wide. The outstretched arms suggest 'big' or 'great', extending from the literal image of a large stance to abstract meanings like important or grand. It is one of the oldest characters, found on oracle bones.
宗 — roof 宀 + altar/show 示
宗 depicts an altar (示) under a roof (宀), picturing an ancestral shrine where offerings were made. From this concrete image it came to mean 'ancestor' and 'clan,' then extended to 'school' or 'sect' — a lineage of teaching traced back to a founding master.