救

Rescue, save, or relieve. The primary sense is crisis intervention: pulling an object back from a state of imminent peril (physical, political, or existential).

Primarily functions as a transitive verb.

Contrast with similar terms of aid: 助 denotes general assistance; 濟 refers to systemic relief or "bringing someone across" a hardship; 援 implies reaching out to support or sustain; and 佑 refers to passive protection or divine guardianship.

In early classical contexts, the glyph typically refers to concrete survival (e.g., rescue from drowning, army, or execution). In later texts, the scope expands to include medicinal curing as a reversal of a fatal trajectory.

Avoid anachronistic soteriological readings (e.g., "saving a soul") unless explicitly supported by the surrounding text; the term is generally more concrete and grounded in survival than modern spiritual equivalents.