收买
shoū mǎi · HSK 7
to bribe
💰 收买 = collect (收) + buy (买): buy someone up = bribe them
收 means to collect or receive, 买 means to buy. Together, to buy up something — or to buy off a person, i.e. bribe. Sounds a bit like show-my-loyalty-for-cash.
收 — 丩 (jiū, cord/bind) + 攵 (rap/strike, action)
Originally written 收, this character combines 丩 'twisted cord' as the phonetic with 攵 'a hand holding a stick' as the semantic, depicting the action of binding up captives or gathering things together by force. The core sense 'to gather, collect, harvest' grew naturally from this image of rounding up and tying.
买 — top 乛 (simplified 罒/網 net) + 头 (head, simplified of 貝 shell)
In its traditional form 買, the character shows a net (网) over a cowrie shell (貝), the ancient money — together meaning 'to net/acquire goods with money,' i.e. to buy. The simplified form 买 keeps the same idea with reduced strokes. It pairs with 卖 (sell), which adds 士 on top to show goods going out.