重伤
zhòng shāng · HSK 7
seriously hurt
🤕 重 = heavy + 伤 = wound, so a heavy wound = a serious injury
重 (zhòng) means heavy or serious; 伤 (shāng) means wound or to hurt. Stacked together they upgrade an ordinary cut into a grave, life-threatening injury. The same 重 sits in 重要 (important = heavy-weight matters).
重 — person 人 + east 東 (phonetic)
Originally depicted a person carrying a heavy bundle on their back, suggesting weight and burden. The 東-like element served as a phonetic component. Over time the character split into two readings: zhòng meaning 'heavy' and chóng meaning 'repeat/again'.
伤 — person radical 亻 + 㿝 (phonetic)
伤 is the simplified form of 傷. It combines the person radical 亻, indicating a human being affected, with a phonetic component derived from 昜. The original sense was a wound or injury to a person, which extended to mean 'to hurt,' 'injury,' and figuratively 'to grieve' or 'sorrow.'