鄕

Pictophonetic / compound character:

Composed of 卩 (kneeling person) mirrored, enclosing 食 (food, meal).

Depicts two people kneeling across from each other before a shared meal bowl, symbolizing communal living and gathering.

In oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, 鄕 and 卿 (official, noble) shared the same form.

From the small seal script onward, 卩 shifted to 邑 (settlement, city), leading to a divergence between 鄕 (“village”) and 卿 (“noble”).

鄕村 (향촌) — countryside, rural village

故鄕 (고향) — hometown

鄕土 (향토) — native soil, local traditions

鄕里 (향리) — village, countryside; hometown community

鄕愁 (향수) — homesickness, nostalgia for one’s homeland

When 鄕 appears as a component in characters like 響 (echo, sound) or 嚮 (to direct, towards), the central element should transform from 皀 to 良.

Many modern fonts fail to reflect this distinction correctly; even widely used typefaces such as Hanyang Haeseo-che display the erroneous form.

饗 (feast, banquet) is one of the few characters in which this transformation is accurately preserved in modern typography.