群

A phono-semantic compound:

羊 (sheep, flock) — semantic

君 (lord, leader) — phonetic

Sheep naturally gather in flocks, and 君 implies leadership or order.

Together, the character conveys a gathered body under a unifying principle, rather than a chaotic mass.

군중 (群衆) — crowd; the masses

군집 (群集) — gathering; aggregation

군락 (群落) — colony; cluster (ecology, sociology)

군체 (群體) — collective body; organism group

군서 (群書) — a collection of books

군상 (群像) — a group portrait; a mass of people (literary)

군도 (群島) — archipelago

군거 (群居) — living in groups; communal living

출군 (出群) — to stand out from the crowd

群 represents many as one — not a mere crowd, but a cohesive collective.

Semantic relatives:

衆 / 众 — crowd, multitude

聚 — gather together

黨 — faction (contrastive: exclusive grouping)

族 — clan, lineage

隊 — unit, team

Conceptual contrast:

群 — neutral or natural grouping

黨 — factional, often political or divisive

衆 — emphasis on sheer number rather than cohesion

Classical citations^

《論語·衛靈公》 (Analects, Wei Linggong)

「 君子矜而不爭，群而不黨。」

“The gentleman is dignified but does not contend; he associates with the group, but does not form factions.”

Here 群 refers to social association without factionalism, a key Confucian ethical distinction.

《史記》 (Records of the Grand Historian) frequently uses 群 in the sense of people as a collective force, such as:

群臣 — “the assembled ministers”

In Buddhist literature, 群 often refers to sentient beings as a collective:

群生 — “all living beings”

群迷 — “the deluded multitude”

This usage emphasizes shared ignorance or shared potential for awakening.

羣 (U+7FA3) — variant with vertical structure

In Hong Kong 羣 is treated as an orthodox form.