稅

Mandatory payment to an authority. As a noun: the tax, the levy, or total collected revenue. As a verb: to levy (state action) or to fulfill a tax obligation (subject's action).

Flexible syntax; used transitively ("to tax [someone/something]") or intransitively/passively. Contextual markers are necessary to distinguish whether the agent is the collector or the payer.

When appearing alongside other taxation terms: 賦 (fù) often denotes the legal imposition of a levy whereas 稅 refers to the sum; 租 (zū) specifically denotes land rent; 貢 (gòng) typically denotes external tribute (e.g., vassal to suzerain), whereas 稅 generally refers to internal state mechanisms.

Early texts: refers to the physical requisition of agricultural produce (grain). Later texts: generalizes to abstract revenue or fiscal duty. Variant: U+7A0E.

In early contexts, avoid translating as a monetary transaction if the text predates standardized currency; consider terminology related to quotas and sheaves.