Chinese

Noun

人民

1. people (collectively)

   孟子曰：「諸侯之寶三：土地、人民、政事。寶珠玉者，殃必及身。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]

   孟子曰：“诸侯之宝三：土地、人民、政事。宝珠玉者，殃必及身。” [Classical Chinese, simp.]

   Mèngzǐ yuē: "Zhūhóu zhī bǎo sān: tǔdì, rénmín, zhèngshì. Bǎo zhūyù zhě, yāng bì jíshēn." [Pinyin]

   Mencius said, "These three are precious to a prince: the territory, the people, and governmental affairs. Calamity is sure to befall the one who values pearls and jades."

Usage notes

人民 can only refer to people collectively, as a unit. To refer to people as individually countable persons, use 人 (rén). To refer to people in an otherwise general sense, use 人民.

Derived terms

Descendants

See also

• 人類／人类 (rénlèi)
• 人民

Japanese

Etymology

From Middle Chinese compound 人民 ‎(*njin *min). Compare modern Mandarin 人民 ‎(rénmín), Wu 人民 ‎(zen min (T3)), Min Nan 人民 ‎(jîn-bîn).

Formerly pronounced with a consistent goon reading of ninmin, later changing to a mixed kan'on / goon reading of jinmin.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

• On'yomi
• (Tokyo) じんみ​ん [jìńmíꜜǹ] (Nakadaka - [3])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [d͡ʑĩmmĩɴ]

Noun

人民 ‎(hiragana じんみん, romaji jinmin)

1. the people, the general public, the citizens

Derived terms

Synonyms

• (people of a nation): 国民 (こくみん) ‎(kokumin)

References

1. ↑ 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

Korean

Hanja

人民 • ‎(inmin) (hangeul 인민, McCune-Reischauer inmin, Yale inmin)

1. the people (of a country), citizens

Vietnamese

Noun

人民

1. Hán tự form of nhân dân, “people”