繫

The core sense is binding or fastening using a cord, string, or silk to prevent movement or separation. The lexical range includes:

• Physical fastening: tying knots, securing garments, tethering animals, or anchoring objects.
• Constraint and detention: shackles, binding prisoners, or legal detention.
• Abstract connection: logical, genealogical, or social links (e.g., lineage).
• Obligation: being bound by duty, promise, or mental preoccupation.

Typically functions as a transitive verb ("A binds/fastens B"). It also appears in stative or passive constructions where the agent is omitted ("B is bound"); in these cases, the translator must determine if the restraint is physical or conceptual.

Frequently interchangeable with 系 due to scribal habit and orthographic evolution. Where a text employs both, 繫 typically denotes the action of binding or the physical mechanism (the knot, the rope), while 系 tends toward the result—the state of being connected, a system, or a lineage.

The specific sense is usually clarified by the surrounding semantic field:

• Legal/punitive terms → shackles, arrest, detention.
• Clothing/ornaments → fastening, securing, tying.
• Kinship/history → lineage, succession, connection.