据
Character Story & Explanation
The earliest form of 据 appears in bronze inscriptions as a compound pictograph: the left side 扌 (hand radical) gripping the right side 居 — which itself was a person sitting on a raised platform or mat (the 'vessel' shape 尸 + the base 呆 simplified over time). So literally, it pictured 'a hand holding fast to a seated position' — conveying the idea of 'holding firmly to a place or stance.' Over centuries, the right side evolved from 居 (jū, 'to reside') into the modern 据 shape through clerical script simplification, while the hand radical 扌 remained clear, anchoring the meaning in physical control and possession.
This original image of 'holding fast' naturally extended to 'holding onto information' — thus 'based on,' 'according to,' or 'in accordance with.' By the Han dynasty, 据 appears frequently in historical texts like the Shǐ Jì (Records of the Grand Historian) meaning 'to rely on' or 'to cite as evidence.' Even Confucius used 据 in the Analects (17.8): '君子據於德' — 'The noble person bases himself on virtue.' Notice how the hand still grips the moral foundation — a beautiful visual metaphor for ethical grounding that persists in modern usage.
At its heart, 据 (jù) isn’t just a dry preposition like 'according to' — it’s a linguistic anchor. In Chinese thinking, truth isn’t floating in the air; it’s always *grounded* in something concrete: a source, evidence, or authority. That’s why 据 almost always appears with a noun or phrase right after it — 据报道 (jù bàodào, 'according to the report'), 据说 (jù shuō, 'it is said') — never alone. It signals intellectual humility: you’re not stating a fact outright; you’re citing where it came from.
Grammatically, 据 is a preposition that must be followed by a noun phrase (never a verb or clause), and it *never* takes 的 before its object — a classic learner trap! You say 据专家分析 (jù zhuānjiā fēnxī, 'according to expert analysis'), NOT 据专家的分析. Also, it’s formal and written-dominant: you’ll rarely hear it in casual speech (where people say 听说 or 我听说 instead). It’s the character of newspapers, research papers, and official announcements — think of it as the ‘citation badge’ of Mandarin.
Culturally, 据 reflects China’s deep-rooted value of evidence-based reasoning and respect for authoritative sources — from classical texts like the Analects to today’s WeMedia fact-checking. Learners often overuse it trying to sound formal, but native speakers reserve it for contexts where credibility matters. Misplacing it (e.g., at the end of a sentence) or pairing it with vague subjects ('according to someone') feels vague and un-Chinese — here, the source must be identifiable and meaningful.