郷

It is a compound ideogram composed of:

食 ("food" or "to eat") in the center, and

two 卩 ("kneeling person" or "seal") characters facing each other on either side.

This represents two people kneeling with a bowl of food between them, symbolizing a community or rural gathering.

In oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, 鄕 shared the same structure as 卿 (a high official). But starting from the Small Seal Script (小篆) era, the component 卩 evolved into 邑 ("village" or "settlement"), leading to the characters being distinguished.

You can see this transformation in related characters such as:

響 ("sound")

嚮 ("toward")

When 鄕 appears at the top (the "head" position) of a character, the central component should shift from 皀 to 良, but many fonts fail to reflect this correctly—even the well-known Hanyang Haeseo font contains this mistake.

Currently, the only commonly used character that accurately renders this transformation is 饗 ("to feast" or "banquet").