损人利己
sǔn rén lì jǐ · HSK 7
harming others for one's personal benefit
🔪💰 损人 = harm others + 利己 = benefit self; literally hurt-people profit-self
Four parts in order: 损 harm, 人 people, 利 benefit, 己 self. The grammar pairs them as two verb-object chunks: harm-others, profit-self. Describes gain won at someone else's expense.
损 — hand 扌 + 员 (yuán, phonetic)
损 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 carries the meaning of an action done by hand, while 员 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to reducing or diminishing something by hand, which broadened to the modern senses of 'damage,' 'loss,' and 'harm.'
人 — pictograph of a standing person
人 is a pictograph showing a person viewed from the side, with two strokes representing the legs and torso of a standing human. In oracle bone script it clearly depicted a figure leaning slightly forward. The meaning has remained 'person' or 'human' throughout its history.
利 — grain 禾 + knife 刂
Originally a pictograph showing a knife (刂) cutting grain (禾), depicting harvest. From the idea of a sharp blade reaping crops, it extended to mean 'sharp,' then 'benefit,' 'profit,' or 'advantage' — the gain that comes from a successful harvest.