Taxonomy of meanings for 邑:　　

Additional information about 邑

說文解字: 【邑】，國也。从囗，先王之制，尊卑有大小，从卪。凡邑之屬皆从邑。 【於汲切】

Criteria
• CAPITAL CITY
  

  1. Guó 國 is a current word for the capital from early Zhou times onwards, but in the course of time the capital came to stand as representative of the (city-) state, and the word came to be used for the state rather than the capital. (Note that even the names of ancient Chinese states currently refer not to the state as such but to the capital.).

  2. Dū 都 typically refers to a conurbation which serves as an administrative centre below the level of a capital, but the meaning of the word does often include the capital and it is occasionally used to refer specifically to the capital.

  3. Jīng 京 refers to the capital in Han times and seems short for jīng shī 京師 which refers to the permanent seat of central government and of the encampment of the central army.

  4. Yì 邑 is an archaic term for a capital current in Western Zhou times and obsolete in that meaning afterwards, when the word came to mean settlement at an administrative level below the dū 都.

• STATE
  

  1. The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows.

  2. Bāng 邦 is an area-orientated old word referring to an extended state (see the early 大邦 ) without emphasising the leading role of a capital in that state, and the word was increasingly replaced by guó 國 even before taboo rules related to the name of Liú Bāng had their impact.

  3. Tǔ 土 refers to territory as such, and occasionally comes to refer to the territory of a certain state, including one's own.

  4. Fāng 方 refers to a region other than one's own state, and note particularly the old phrase 方國.

  5. Tiān xià 天下 refers to the inhabited earth construed as dominated by the emperor or Son of Heaven, but by extension the expression also refers collectively to the the central states governed by the zhū hóu 諸侯. (NOTE THAT THE EMPIRE OF CHINA WAS NOT REGARDED AS A STATE.)

  6. Guó jiā 國家 refers to the nation as a social institution dominated by a certain clan. See NATION.

  7. Yì 邑 "capital" occasionally comes to refer to the state dominated by a certain city, its capital.

• COUNTRYSIDE
  

  1. The current general word for the undelimited non-urban areas is yě 野 (ant. yì 邑 "urbanised settlement").

  2. Jiāo 郊 is the fairly well-defined cultivated countryside immediately surround a conurbation; it is also the place where "suburban" sacrifices are held. See CITY

  3. Pì 僻 refers to unfrequented outlying parts of the country without strongly suggesting any deficiency in culture.

  4. Bǐ 鄙 refers again to the outlying parts of the countryside that are deficient in "high culture", and these words are predominantly used as adjectives.

  5. Lòu 陋 is a rare word referring to the remote countryside.

  6. Huāng 荒 refers to any lack of cultivated vegetation and even demarkation of fields.

• CITY
  

  1. The most general term for walled urban or semi-urban administrative centres and settlements below the level of the capital, and above the level of the village without any presence of the state administration, is 邑. In OBI the word can also refer to the royal capital.

  2. Dū 都 refers to a larger urbanised settlement with an ancestral shrine for the leading family in the town, and with representatives of the central state government in permanent residence. The word came to refer quite generally to a city in post-Warring States times.

  3. Chéng 城 refers specifically to the part of a city surrounded by the inner city wall chéng 城. But the word is also sometimes used to refer more generally to walled cities.

  4. Guō 郭 refers to the part of a walled city outside the inner city walls chéng 城 but inside the outer city walls guō 郭. Sometimes the outer walls are added on one side only of the inner city walls thus creating a kind of second-level walled city.

  5. Fú 郛 refers to a large guō 郭 "inhabited area between inner and outer city walls".

  6. Jiāo 郊 refers to the cultivated area outside the guō 郭 and bounded by yě 野 "open countryside". See SUBURB

Word relations
• Contrast: (CITY)城/CITY Chéng 城 refers specifically to the part of a city surrounded by the inner city wall chéng 城. But the word is also sometimes used to refer more generally to walled cities.
• Contrast: (CITY)都/CAPITAL CITY Dū 都 typically refers to a conurbation which serves as an administrative centre below the level of a capital, but the meaning of the word does often include the capital and it is occasionally used to refer specifically to the capital. 1 Attribution
• Contrast: (CITY)鄉/VILLAGE Xiāng 鄉 as an administrative term refers to a fairly non-urban neighbourhood area which will normally include several lǐ 里. ZHOULI and Han commentators arbitrarily define this as containing 12 500 families; when used informally, the term refers to a person's home or the vicinity where he lives, as in xiāng rén 鄉人. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (CITY)都/CITY Dū 都 refers to a larger urbanised settlement with an ancestral shrine for the leading family in the town, and with representatives of the central state government in permanent residence. The word came to refer quite generally to a city in post-Warring States times. 1 Attribution