retainer, subject
臣 centers on a person in a subordinate role: a retainer who serves a lord or a subject under a ruler.
臣 is a pictograph of a bowed eye, representing a servant or retainer looking down in submission. The modern form retains the stylized eye shape.
The shape looks like a wide eye with a bowed brow, as if a retainer is looking down respectfully before their lord.
For シン, imagine a loyal retainer named Shin who always bows deeply: Shin -> シン, and the bowed eye shape matches the retainer's posture.
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cabinet minister
retainer; attendant
slave
vassal; retainer
subject; national; citizen
Minister of Justice
retainer; subject; vassal; servant
Ason (second highest of the eight hereditary titles)
(story of the) Forty-seven Rōnin; the Treasury of Loyal Retainers; Chūshingura
minister of state; cabinet minister (in Japan)
loyal retainer; loyal subject
chief vassal; senior statesman
old or key retainer
Minister of the Left (official in Nara and Heian periods)
shogunate retainer; shogunate vassal
courtier
Minister of the Right (official in Nara and Heian periods)
Minister for Digital Transformation
low-rank retainer
disloyalty; unfaithfulness