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FrequencyVery common — among the 100 most frequent characters in modern Chinese.
行 originally pictured a crossroads, and from that come its two main jobs: read xíng it means to walk, to go, to do or carry out, and colloquially "OK, that works"; read háng it means a row or line, and by extension a trade, profession, or business firm — hence 銀行/银行 "bank". It is one of the first few hundred characters a learner meets, in 旅行 (travel), 行李 (luggage), 進行/进行 (to carry out) and 銀行 (bank). In Cantonese it has an extra everyday reading haang4 for physically walking, as in 行街 "go out shopping".
Mandarinxíng · ㄒㄧㄥˊ
Cantonesehang4 · hàhng
In Cantonese, hang4 (hàhng) is the literary reading used in compounds like 行為, 進行, 旅行; the colloquial reading haang4 (hàahng) is used when it means physically to walk: 行街 haang4 gaai1, 行路 haang4 lou6. The 'row/trade' sense is hong4 (hòhng).
verb(xíng) to do, to carry out, to put into practice
adjective / interjection(xíng) all right, OK, that will do; also 'capable, good at something' (他真行)
noun(háng) a row, a line (of things)
noun(háng) a trade, line of work, profession
noun(háng) a firm or shop, especially 銀行 a bank
measure word(háng) for rows or lines, e.g. 三行字 three lines of text
noun(xìng) conduct, behaviour (in compounds such as 品行, 德行)
Other pronunciations
háng · hong4 a row or line; a trade or profession; a business firm (銀行 bank, 行業 industry)
xìng · hang6 conduct, moral behaviour — in 品行 pǐnxìng, 德行 déxìng
hàng · hong4 rare: 行行 hànghàng, unyielding/sturdy in appearance (literary)
How it is built
pictograph
Radical 行. to go; step (行 is itself a radical, number 144).
彳meaning The left half as written today; in the modern analysis it is the 'step' radical, but historically it is just the left branch of the crossroads picture.
亍meaning The right half; likewise the right branch of the original crossroads, not an independent meaningful part.
Origin
Oracle-bone and bronze forms of 行 show an intersection of two roads seen from above — a crossroads. From 'road' came the senses of going, walking, and then of a route or a line, and from 'line' the sense of a row, a trade and a business house. The common textbook explanation that 行 is 彳 (left step) plus 亍 (right step), i.e. walking with both feet, comes from the Shuowen-era reading of the seal form; it is a later rationalisation rather than the original picture, though it is useful for remembering the shape.
Remembering it
See the two halves as the four arms of a crossroads flattened onto the page: roads are for going (xíng), and the lanes of a road give you rows and lines (háng). Shops once lined such streets — hence trades and 銀行, the 'silver business'.
The two main readings are not interchangeable and mis-reading 銀行 as yínxíng is a classic beginner slip. Mandarin 不行 means 'no good / not allowed'; 行 alone as a reply means 'OK' and is casual but neutral. In Cantonese, say haang4 for walking (行路, 行街) and hang4 in bookish compounds (進行, 行為); hong4 for banks and trades. Note 自行車 is Mainland Mandarin — in Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong say 單車.
Context
行 appears in the saying 三百六十行，行行出狀元 ('there are 360 trades, and every trade produces its champion'), i.e. you can excel in any line of work. 內行/外行 (insider/outsider to a trade) are everyday ways of saying someone does or doesn't know their field. In old Guangzhou, 十三行 was the name of the licensed merchant houses that handled all foreign trade.
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