秤
chēng , chèng · HSK 7
to weigh
⚖️ chēng sounds like ching of a metal balance arm snapping level
A steelyard (杆秤) is a traditional Chinese beam balance. The left side 禾 means grain — what you weigh — and 平 means level, flat. A scale works when the beam sits perfectly level: grain + level = steelyard.
秤 — grain 禾 + flat/even 平
A semantic-phonetic compound: 禾 (grain) gives the meaning, since steelyards were used to weigh harvested grain, while 平 (flat, level) suggests both the sound and the idea of balance. Originally written 稱, 秤 came to specifically mean a steelyard or balance scale, and by extension the unit of weight read as chèng.