司法 (sī fǎ) — (noun) justice, administration of justice; (adj…

Definition

司法 means 'judicial' or 'administration of justice' — it describes the legal system's courts and processes, not abstract fairness (正义) or the principle of rule of law itself (法治).

noun

justiceadministration of justice

adjective

judicial

Examples

司法。
sī fǎ Jī guān dú lì xíng shǐ shěn pàn quán.
Judicial organs exercise adjudicative power independently.
司法。
Wéi hù sī fǎ gōng zhèng shì duì měi gè gōng mín de chéng nuò.
Upholding judicial fairness is a commitment to every citizen.
司法。
Guó jiā zhèng zài tuī jìn sī fǎ tǐ zhì gǎi gé.
The country is advancing judicial system reform.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

司sīadminister

法fǎlaw

司 means to administer and 法 means law, denoting administering the law.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The evidence is inconclusive: one suggestion sees 司 as a mouth giving orders beside a mark of authority, another reads that mark as a hand, and another sees it as a reversed older form.

Open 司 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

氵Written in full as水shuǐwater

廌廌zhìa type of antelope or caprid

Sound part声符shēngfú

盍

盍hé法fǎ

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

法's older form combined 氵 (water) and 廌 (a type of antelope or caprid), with 盍 as a sound part; later 廌 was dropped.

Open 法 →

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