集
jí · HSK 6
gather
🐦🌳 隹 bird + 木 tree = birds gather in a tree
A flock of birds lands on one tree — they collect in the same spot. The character literally stacks the bird radical on top of the tree radical to show gathering.
集 — bird 隹 on top of tree 木
集 is an ideograph showing a bird (隹) perched on a tree (木). The original form depicted three birds gathering on a tree, later simplified to one. From 'birds flocking together' it extended to mean 'gather, collect, assemble,' and by extension 'collection' or 'volume' of writings.