Chinese Characters

躺

PINYIN

tǎng

Main meanings:

①lie

②recline.

HSK - 4

STROKES - 15

RADICAL -身

Elements: body 身 + house 尚. Phonetic series: 尚

The body 身 at home 尚. The original meaning of 尚 was a house, a good house with double roof; its meaning later extended to the present ones. Due to the rules of Chinese writing the body usually is placed in the left part of the character, not inside the house as in my drawing.

Main Words in HSK:

躺下 tǎngxia lie down.

躺下来tǎng xiàlái lie down.

Discussion and sources
Most of the scholars consider that in this character 尚 has only phonetic value. It is difficult to agree on this.

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