客

Core sense denotes an "outsider" external to a specific household, location, or center of power (often defined in binary opposition to 主).

Lexical range includes:

• Social/Hospitality: Guest or visitor.
• Spatial/Status: Traveler, stranger, or wayfarer; emphasizes displacement ("not from here").
• Professional: A specialized retainer or consultant, such as a scholar, strategist, or rhetorician hired for expertise (distinct from hereditary officials 臣).
• Commercial: A customer.

Attributive use: denotes "external," "foreign," or "alien."

Contrast with 旅: While both relate to travel, 旅 emphasizes the act of journeying or a collective group (e.g., an army or caravan), whereas 客 emphasizes the status of the individual relative to a host or fixed location.

The professional sense (retainer/consultant) is specifically prominent from the Warring States through the Early Han period. The commercial sense ("customer") is generally a later development or was subsumed under the broader category of "stranger" in early texts.

• In political contexts, translating the professional retainer sense as "guest" may be too weak; "retainer" or "consultant" is typically more accurate.
• In celestial/astronomical contexts, 客星 refers to a "guest star" (a nova or supernova).
• When the role of the glyph is ambiguous, determine if the context emphasizes the relationship to a host (Guest), the state of being in transit (Traveler/Stranger), or the provision of specialized skills for hire (Retainer/Consultant).