式

Core concept: A pattern, template, or standard used to ensure consistency across time or administration.

• Administrative & Legal: Regulations and "standard operating procedures."
• Documentary & Bureaucratic: Prescribed formulas and boilerplate language for official documents, often required for legal validity.
• Ritual & Behavioral: The prescribed script or standard governing the correctness of a rite.
• Aesthetic/General: Style or manner based on established models rather than individual creativity.

Primarily functions as a noun. It can also act as a nominal modifier to categorize "types," "kinds," or "forms" (e.g., "this kind of pattern").

• vs 法 (fǎ): While fǎ often denotes law in principle or its punitive power, 式 refers to the administrative machinery—the specific formula or regulation used to implement a law.
• vs 制 (zhì): 制 typically emphasizes the act of establishing or restricting; 式 is the resulting pattern or standard itself.
• vs 範 (fàn): 範 is a mold or an ideal model to be emulated; 式 is a standard followed for correctness or validity.
• vs 儀 (yí): 儀 concerns the propriety and grace of ritual performance; 式 is the underlying template being performed.

Tang-period reading: shiək.