引

• Physical Extension: To pull, stretch, or draw out (e.g., strings, limbs, or a bow).
• Guidance and Attraction: Leading or guiding someone from one place to another; introducing someone to a person or position; luring or enticing.
• Intellectual/Textual Citation: Citing an authority, quoting a text, or bringing up a specific precedent to support an argument.
• Temporal and Auditory Prolongation: Stretching the duration of a sound (e.g., a sustained note) or prolonging a period of time.

• vs. 牽 (qiān): While both can mean "lead," 牽 implies a tether, leash, or forced movement; 引 focuses on direction and the act of guiding.
• vs. 導 (dǎo): 導 emphasizes channeling or showing the way; 引 retains the sense of "pulling" from one point to another.
• vs. 舉 (jǔ): Both can mean "to cite," but 舉 is akin to "lifting" an example into view for illustration, whereas 引 is "drawing" a specific line of text or authority into the discourse.

Tang-period reading: *ǐn (Fanqie: 余忍 羊晉).

The glyph's primary sense is rooted in the act of tension and extension, prototypically associated with the bow (弓).