Chinese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
融 means melting, right?
So 融资 means melting capital? Some Chinese friends told me that it was the ancient practice where gold ingots from different sources are melted to become the property of somebody for public good. Is that true or is there any other justification for that?
It is true that, generally speaking, 融 means to melt, but has other meanings too, especially in the economic context.
In this case, as 賈可 Jacky wrote, the character 融 can be translated as circulation or to circulate. In the online Chinese Dictionary zdic this character is defined as follows:
● 融
róng ㄖㄨㄥˊ
- 固体受热变软或化为流体：～化。～解。消～。
- 调合，和谐：～合。～洽。～汇贯通。其乐～～。
- 流通：～泄（飘动，浮动）。金～（货币的流通，即储蓄，信贷、汇兑、股票和证券交易等经济活动的总称）。
- 长远、永久：～裔（形容声调悠长）。
The meaning we are interested in is #3, which says:
[...]
3. Circulation [流通]: like in the words fluctuation [融泄] (floating, drifting) and finance [金融] (circulation of money, namely savings, credit, remittances, buying and selling of stocks, and other economic activities of this kind)
[...]
So, this character 融 has to do with circulation (流通) of capital (资本), and that's why the meaning of 融资 is in fact financing or funding.
This particular meaning of 融 can also be found in the 《汉语大字典》 and in the 《辞源》. Both dictionaries explain this character by saying that its meaning is basically 流通 (to circulate).
I couldn't find any reference to the ancient tradition your friend mentioned. Anyway, it seems to me that the word 融资 is quite a modern coinage.
References:
I think if you understand the phrase "融入" (means gathering, collecting, blending into),you would have better idea of "融资". So, "融资" could be interpreted as "融入资金", which means gathering (or borrowing) money or capital (into a money pool for some purpose maybe).
融 can also mean "fusion", c.f. 融合
融资：to find money.
“融” 听起来比 “要” beg 高大上。
