经商
jīng shāng · HSK 7
to carry out commercial activities
🏪💰 经商 = 经 manage + 商 commerce: to manage commerce, do business
商 by itself means commerce or trade; 经 here carries the sense of managing or engaging in something ongoing. Put together, 经商 is the act of running a trade or being in business.
经 — silk radical 纟 + 巠 (underground stream)
Originally written 經, combining the silk radical 糸 with 巠, depicting vertical threads on a loom. The core meaning was 'warp threads,' which extended to 'pass through,' 'classic text,' and 'manage.' The phonetic 巠 also suggests the sound.
商 — 亠 lid + 丷 + 冏 window/enclosure
In oracle bone script 商 depicted a raised platform or altar-like structure, and it served as the name of the Shang dynasty and its capital region. The modern components are a late simplification of that pictograph and carry no separate meaning. The sense 'trade, merchant' arose later, traditionally linked to Shang people who travelled to buy and sell after their dynasty fell.