鄉

鄉 (Kangxi radical 163, 邑+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 女竹戈戈中 (VHIIL), four-corner 2772₇, composition ⿰乡郎)

• 膷 鱜 䦳 曏 薌 㗽 蠁 響 饗 嚮 𣜼 𤩬 𧬰 𨬽 𬳧

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 1275, character 2
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 39498
• Dae Jaweon: page 1775, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 3786, character 4
• Unihan data for U+9109

Historical forms of the character 鄉
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 𠨍 (“two people facing each other”) + 皀 (“a round-mouthed food vessel”) – to feast; the original script of 饗 (OC *qʰaŋʔ). The sense "village" was a result of phonetic borrowing or semantic shifting.

In early writing, the character was virtually indistinguishable from 卿 (OC *kʰraŋ). Semantically, 卿 (OC *kʰraŋ, “elder; leader”) and 鄉 (OC *qʰaŋ, “community; district; village”), likely cognates too, were both represented by the event depicted in the ideogram – 饗 (OC *qʰaŋʔ, “ritual feasting”), which was central to the community life (Yang, 1965).

The right half is unrelated to 郎, as 良 in 鄉 was derived from 皀 during the formation of the clerical script.

鄉

1. township
2. countryside; country; rural area

   鄉村／乡村  ―  xiāngcūn  ―  village

   城鄉／城乡  ―  chéngxiāng  ―  urban and rural areas

3. one's native place

   回鄉／回乡  ―  huíxiāng  ―  to return to one's native place

4. place
5. state; situation

   夢鄉／梦乡  ―  mèngxiāng  ―  dreamland

6. a surname

鄉

1. Alternative form of 嚮／向

鄉

1. Alternative form of 饗／飨 (xiǎng)

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

• On (unclassified): きょう (kyō); ごう (gō)
• Kun: さと (sato); ふるさと (furusato); さきに (sakini)
• kyūjitai: 鄕
• shinjitai: 郷

鄉 • (hyang) (hangeul 향, revised hyang, McCune–Reischauer hyang, Yale hyang)

1. alternative form of 鄕

鄉: Hán Nôm readings: hương

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.