僯
Character Story & Explanation
僯 (lǐn) is virtually unused in modern Chinese life. No major dictionary (e.g., Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, 7th ed.) includes it as a headword. It does not appear in any HSK vocabulary list, contemporary news corpora, or digital text archives (e.g., BCC Corpus). There are no idioms (chengyu), fixed expressions, or documented phrases containing 僯 in authoritative sources. Its sole attestation is in pre-Han glossaries like the Shuowen Jiezi (c. 100 CE), where it is defined tersely as 'shame' (慙也) but without examples or derivatives.
The character’s form combines the 'person' radical (亻) with 稟 (bǐng, originally meaning 'to report' or 'to receive instructions'). While 稟 was historically used phonetically, no clear pictographic origin exists for 僯—it was likely created as a phonosemantic compound in early lexicography, not as a pictograph or ideograph. Today, if encountered at all, it appears only in academic discussions of textual variants or paleographic reconstructions—not in real-life communication.
The Chinese character 僯 (lǐn) is an archaic and extremely rare character meaning 'ashamed' or 'shamefaced.' It appears almost exclusively in classical texts and historical lexicons—not in modern Mandarin speech, education, or daily writing. Its usage has effectively vanished from contemporary language; even native speakers rarely encounter it outside specialized scholarly contexts like philology or pre-Qin textual studies. Due to its obsolescence, it carries no HSK level, stroke count, or standard radical classification in modern dictionaries.
Unlike common shame-related terms such as 羞 (xiū) or 愧 (kuì), 僯 lacks semantic transparency in modern character analysis—it does not function independently in compound words or idioms today. Its phonetic component (稟 bǐng) suggests ancient phonetic borrowing, but its semantic field remains isolated and unproductive. This makes it linguistically inert: a lexical fossil rather than a living part of the language system.
In Western cultural equivalents, 'ashamed' conveys moral discomfort or self-reproach—akin to guilt, embarrassment, or remorse—but 僯’s narrow, obsolete sense lacks the psychological nuance or social resonance of English 'ashamed.' Unlike Greek 'aidōs' (reverent shame) or German 'Scham,' which anchor ethical frameworks, 僯 never evolved into a philosophical or literary concept in Chinese thought. Its absence from Confucian, Daoist, or Buddhist canonical texts underscores its marginal status—making it a cautionary example of how language pruning removes semantically redundant characters over time.
Example Sentences
Common Compounds
Similar Characters — Don't Mix These Up
Your First Step into Chinese Culture: Get a Chinese Name
Every journey into Chinese begins with a name. Use our free Chinese name generator to create a meaningful, personalized Chinese name that fits you perfectly.
Get My Chinese Name →