税收
shuì shoū · HSK 7
taxation
💰 税 tax + 收 collect = the collecting of taxes, i.e. taxation
税 — grain radical 禾 + 兑 (exchange/phonetic)
税 combines 禾 (grain) with 兑 (exchange), which also hints at the sound. In ancient China taxes were paid in grain, so the character originally meant a levy of harvest given to the state. Its meaning later broadened to taxes and duties of any kind.
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.