权益
quányì · HSK 7
rights and interests
⚖️ 权益 = 权 (rights, power) + 益 (benefit, profit) = the rights and interests you hold
权 is authority or rights; 益 means benefit or gain (the same 益 as in 利益, profit). Together they name the legal rights and interests a person is entitled to. Sound: quán-yì, with quán matching the 全 in 全部 (whole).
权 — wood 木 + 雚 (heron, phonetic)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 木 (tree/wood) gives the meaning, while 雚 supplies the sound 'quan'. The early sense referred to a specific tree, then shifted to mean a weight used on a steelyard balance. From 'weight' it extended metaphorically to 'authority' and 'power', the dominant modern meaning.