学说
xuéshuō · HSK 7
theory
📜 学说 = study/learn + speak — a doctrine someone teaches and explains
学 (xué) means to study or learn; 说 (shuō) means to speak or explain. Joined, they name a worked-out system of ideas that gets taught and argued — a theory or school of thought, like Darwin's 学说.
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.
说 — speech radical 讠(言) + 兑
说 combines the speech radical 讠(言, 'words') with 兑, which acts as the phonetic component. The character originally meant 'to explain' or 'to speak,' and broadened to mean 'say' or 'talk.' The same graph is also read 'yuè' meaning 'pleased,' a sense later written 悦.