(gòng): to offer tribute, tribute, gifts

(gòng) is a Chinese character meaning “to offer tribute.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #1538 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, money. Its radical form (shell) appears in many related characters such as (guì, abbr. for Guizhou Province 貴州|贵州[Gui4 zhou1]), (, to bear), (, responsibility).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to offer tribute
  2. tribute
  3. gifts

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿱工贝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verb/noungòng xiànto contribute5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
西xī gòngSaigon, capital of former South Vietnam
gòng pǐntribute
jìn gòngto present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)
gòng gāo wǒ mànhaughty and arrogant
zì gòng shìZigong, prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province 四川省[Si4 chuan1 Sheng3]
gòng duō lā(loanword) gondola (Venetian canal boat)
gòng dōu lāsee 貢多拉|贡多拉[gong4 duo1 la1]
gòng shān dú lóng zú nù zú zì zhì xiànGongshan Derung and Nu autonomous county in Nujiang Lisu autonomous prefecture 怒江傈僳族自治州[Nu4 jiang1 Li4 su4 zu2 Zi4 zh...
lǐ lùn gòng xiàntheoretical contribution
shàng gòngto present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)
zǐ gòngZi Gong or Duanmu Ci 端木賜|端木赐[Duan1 mu4 Ci4] (520 BC-), disciple of Confucius
gòng shēngcandidate for the Imperial Examination proposed by a tributary state
zì gòngsee 自貢市|自贡市[Zi4 gong4 Shi4]
gòng guótributary state of China (old)
zhāng gòng qūZhanggong, a district of Ganzhou City 贛州市|赣州市[Gan4 zhou1 Shi4], Jiangxi
34
Total compounds
62
As first character
26
As last character
12
As middle character

appears in 34 compound words: 62 as the first character, 26 as the last, and 12 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xiàn
0.687110,715 co-occurrences
jié
0.4636,576 co-occurrences
0.4459,744 co-occurrences
zuò
0.4349,420 co-occurrences
cháo
0.4019,444 co-occurrences
zhuó
0.3992,430 co-occurrences
jiǎng
0.3975,604 co-occurrences
chū
0.39438,676 co-occurrences
0.3903,912 co-occurrences
yán
0.3871,482 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě gòng zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "贡" is related to its radical.

風傳媒Feb 2026

...股还是减码?专家点名护国群山:光6档就可献指数38000点

. . . gǔ hái shì jiǎn mǎ ? zhuān jiā diǎn míng hù guó qún shān : guāng 6 dàng jiù kě gòng xiàn zhǐ shǔ 3 8 0 0 0 diǎn

... Stocks or reductions? Experts named the mountains to protect the country: only 6 gears can contribute 38,000 points to the index

中国军网Feb 2026

军事论坛丨提升军事理论对战斗力的献率

jūn shì lùn tán 丨 tí shēng jūn shì lǐ lùn duì zhàn dǒu lì de gòng xiàn lǜ

Military Forum丨Improve the contribution rate of military theory to combat effectiveness

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

法国罗浮宫馆长德卡尔请辞 马克龙感谢对方

fǎ guó luó fú gōng guǎn cháng dé kǎ ěr qǐng cí mǎ kè lóng gǎn xiè duì fāng gòng xiàn

De Cartes, director of the Louvre Museum in France, resigned Macron thanked the other party for his contributions

Hk01.comFeb 2026

古天乐现身演协春茗送惊喜 刘江演艺献获表扬:我未够资格

gǔ tiān lè xiàn shēn yǎn xié chūn 茗 sòng jīng xǐ liú jiāng yǎn yì gòng xiàn huò biǎo yáng : wǒ wèi gòu zī gé

Louis Koo appeared in the Spring Tea of the Acting Association to send a surprise Liu Jiang's acting contribution was praised: I am not qualified enough

English News - RthkFeb 2026

渔护署:西东郊野公园景点及露营地点秩序及卫生与预计...

yú hù shǔ : xī gòng dōng jiāo yě gōng yuán jǐng diǎn jí lù yíng dì diǎn zhì xù jí wèi shēng yǔ yù jì . . .

AFCD: Sai Kung East Country Park Attractions and Camping Sites Order, Hygiene and Forecast...

Tatoeba

你会说克林语吗?

Nǐ huì shuō Kèlíngòng yǔ ma?

Do you speak Klingon?

Tatoeba

我将会努力作献的!

Wǒ jiānghuì nǔlì zuò gòngxiàn de!

I will work hard to contribute!

Tatoeba

他为经济发展作了很多献。

Tā wèi jīngjìfāzhǎn zuò le hěn duō gòngxiàn.

He contributed much to the development of the economy.

Tatoeba

每个人都有能力作献。

Měigerén dōu yǒunénglì zuò gòngxiàn.

And everyone has the ability to contribute.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gòng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 贡 (gòng) mean in Chinese?
贡 (gòng) primarily means "to offer tribute." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1538 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 贡 and 江?
贡 (gòng) and 江 (jiāng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 贝 vs 氵 (same 工 component).
How many strokes does 贡 have?
贡 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 贡?
The radical associated with 贡 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 贡?
贡 is composed of: 工 (phonetic), 贝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱工贝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 贡?
Common words with 贡 include: 贡献 (gòng xiàn, "to contribute"); 西贡 (xī gòng, "Saigon, capital of former South Vietnam"); 贡品 (gòng pǐn, "tribute"); 进贡 (jìn gòng, "to present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)"); 贡高我慢 (gòng gāo wǒ màn, "haughty and arrogant"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 贡 (gòng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gòng: 攻 (to attack), 巩 ((bound form) to fix in place). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 贡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 贡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.