清

Core sense is transparency and purity, extending from physical properties to moral and administrative states:

• Physical/Sensory: Transparent, clear, or crystalline (liquids and air); resonant, distinct, or crisp (sound).
• Moral and Ethical: Integrity and honesty; a character defined by the absence of greed or ulterior motives.
• Administrative/Political: A government or court free from corruption; the action of purging or removing inefficiency and corruption.
• Psychological/Environmental: Stillness or tranquility.

• Adjectival: Primary use (e.g., clear water, pure heart).
• Verbal: To clarify, to purify, or to settle/clear debts and accounts.
• Nominal: Used in philosophical contexts to refer to the abstract quality of clarity.

When distinguishing among terms for "clean" or "pure":

• 清: Focuses on transparency and essence; purity as a lack of cloudiness or corruption.
• 潔 (jié): Focuses on being spotless; often carries connotations of ritual purity or absolute absence of stain.
• 淨 (jìng): Focuses on the mundane; refers to being washed or cleansed of physical grime.

• Variant: 淸 is functionally identical with no semantic distinction.

When translating "peace" in the context of this glyph, note that it denotes a lack of turmoil (derived from the image of an undisturbed water surface) rather than geopolitical peace.