刑

xíng

punishment, penalty; penal law

Meaning

Physical application: corporal punishment, mutilation, torture, or execution.
Legal system: the penal code or specific statutes regarding penalties (the machinery of punishment).
Status: the state of being condemned, sentenced, or under penalty.

Grammar and usage

Noun: a penalty, a sentence, or the penal code.
Verb: to punish, execute, sentence, or inflict corporal punishment.

Distinctions

vs. 法 (fǎ): fǎ is the standard, rule, or overarching law; xíng is the specific punitive application of that law.
vs. 罰 (fá): fá often denotes fines, loss of rank, or corrective blows; xíng generally implies more severe, physical, or irreversible harm.
vs. 罪 (zuì): zuì is the crime or guilt (the cause); xíng is the punishment (the effect).

History and forms

Tang-period records note a reading of heng, likely as a phonetic variation or regionalism.

Translator notes

In archaic contexts, prioritize the physical reality of the instrument or act over abstract "justice."
In philosophical contexts, the glyph may carry a sense of "correcting" or "rectifying" behavior through force.
Do not conflate the Tang-period reading (heng) with 衡 (balance/scale) unless the surrounding text provides explicit evidence of a pun or conceptual overlap.

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.