聲

It is a compound ideograph, formed from:

殸 (seong), an abbreviated form of 磬 (gyeongsoe gyeong, “stone chime, lithophone”), representing the sound of striking a musical stone.

耳 (“ear”), indicating listening.

Thus, the character depicts “hearing the sound of a struck instrument.”

It can also be parsed as 聲 = 声 (instrument, sound) + 殳 (to strike) + 耳 (ear) → “to strike an instrument and hear it.”

聲 originated from the image of striking a lithophone and hearing the sound with the ear, and it developed into the primary word for human voice and vocal sounds. In classical philosophy it was distinguished from 音 (instrumental sound), and today it is a key morpheme for words about sound, speech, music, and reputation across East Asia.

음성 (音聲) – sound, voice

명성 (名聲) – fame, reputation

목소리 (聲) – voice (in Sino-Korean compounds)

합창성 (合唱聲) – choral sound

성악 (聲樂) – vocal music

잡성 (雜聲) – noise

Both 聲 and 音 mean “sound,” but they differ in nuance:

聲 refers to sounds produced by the human voice (speech, singing, tones).

音 refers more broadly to musical sounds, instrumental tones.

The Shuowen Jiezi (説文解字 shuōwén jiězì) distinguishes them by associating:

聲 with the five tones (五聲: 宮, 商, 角, 徴, 羽) – the vocal scale.

音 with the eight sounds (八音: 絲, 竹, 金, 石, 匏, 土, 革, 木) – categories of musical instruments.

In the Dao De Jing (도덕경), 聲 is used for the phonetic qualities of speech (phonology), while 音 refers to articulated sound shaped by the organs of speech (phonetics).