The Chinese language is often based around religious themes, and it reflects the mindset of the people at that time of its formation, who believed in the existence of higher beings.
The distinctiveness of the Chinese script lies especially in its complexity. Often one character consists of more independent characters, which, when put together, create new meanings. Depending on the interpretation of the combined meaning, a character can thereby have a multitude of meanings. Besides a certain vagueness in the exact meaning, this can conversely lead to complex and profound ideas being communicated with only a few characters.
One example for this is the character 責 (zé), which means duty, responsibility, demand, or requirement, and also reprimand or punishment. It consists of three ideograms 主 (zhŭ), 且 (qiĕ) and 人 (rén).
主 is the character for god, or for the gods who created the world. 且 represents the levels of different dimensions of the universe, in which infinitely many different beings live. The third ideogram 人 is the Chinese character for a human being.
The combination of these three characters shows the understanding of people at that time for the word responsibility: the gods watch over the beings of different dimensions as well as people, because the creators feel called upon and responsible.
Taking on responsibility means to behave in a certain manner toward others. Whoever takes over responsibility has to fulfill a duty; they watch and encourage, or reprimand and punish. Therefore, the responsibility for the person who takes over this task is also always connected with a certain degree of self-sacrifice, which is duty.
