亭

• Architectural: A pavilion or open-sided structure; frequently denotes a place of stopping or resting during travel.
• Administrative (Qin/Han): A local administrative unit, rural police post, or checkpoint, particularly in contexts involving law, census, or state surveillance.

Can function as a verb meaning "to stop," "to halt," or "to stay."

The meaning shifts based on genre: poetic contexts typically favor the architectural sense (pavilion/resting place), while legal or historical narratives of the early empire typically denote administrative checkpoints.

The verbal sense ("to stop") was largely superseded by 停 in later textual layers.

When the intended meaning is "erect," "straight," or "pushing up," verify whether the glyph is a graphical or phonetic substitution for 挺 (tǐng).