心

xīn

heart; mind; intelligence; soul; center; 5th lunar mansion (Antares)

Meaning

Psychological/Cognitive: Intellect, will, intention, purpose, emotion, feeling, desire, or soul.
Physical: The anatomical heart.
Spatial/Abstract: The center, core, or essence of an object, location, or argument.
Astronomy: The 5th lunar mansion (the star Antares / α Scorpii).

Distinctions

心 vs. 神 (shén): 心 typically denotes the faculty of thought and feeling (the "instrument"), while 神 often refers to the animating force, spirit, or divine spark inhabiting that faculty.
Ambiguity: Because biological, cognitive, and affective ranges overlap, descriptions of the state of the 心 (e.g., "troubled") may simultaneously refer to emotional anxiety, mental confusion, or physical ailment.

History and forms

Variants: Semantic variants include U+38FA and U+5FC4; these are functionally equivalent to the standard form for translation purposes.
Readings: Tang-period reading reconstructed as *sim; Fanqie reading 息林.

Translator notes

The glyph functions as a unified concept for both cognition and emotion. Avoid forcing a modern distinction between "heart" and "mind" unless the context explicitly demands it.
When the glyph appears alongside other astral markers or seasonal indicators, pivot from psychological to astronomical readings.

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