xìn

Xìn (信) is a Chinese character pronounced xìn in Mandarin and is used in various East Asian languages, including Vietnamese (xín) and Korean (신, sin). The character denotes concepts of trust, faith, belief, honesty, and also functions as a noun meaning “letter” or “message.” Its earliest forms appear on bronze inscriptions of the Western Zhou period, where it combined the radical for “person” (人物) with a phonetic element that originally depicted a hand holding a weapon, suggesting the idea of a person’s pledge or guarantee. Over time the graphic simplified, arriving at the modern logograph composed of the “person” radical (亻) on the left and the component “word” (言) on the right, reinforcing the link between speech and trust.

In classical Chinese literature, xìn appears in moral teachings such as the Analects, where it is associated with the virtue of integrity (信而后礼). The character also forms a core component of many compound words: xìnyòng (信用) “credit,” xìnrèn (信任) “to trust,” xìnshǒu (信手) “to do something casually,” and xìnyǐng (信影) “letter of recommendation.” In modern Mandarin, xìn is frequently used as a verb meaning “to trust” or “to have confidence in,” and as a noun meaning “letter” or “email.” The term also appears in the legal context as “faithful performance” of contracts.

Outside of the Chinese writing system, the character is employed in Japanese kanji (shin) and Korean hanja (sin), retaining similar meanings. Its presence in personal names, such as the Vietnamese surname Xìn, reflects an ancestral aspiration toward trustworthiness and reliability.