Several parts combine into one character.

則 is a compound ideograph: 貝 (cowrie shell / wealth) + 刂 (knife). The composite reads as "what is carved with a knife next to bronze valuables" = a law / rule / standard. The etymology preserves a striking historical practice: in ancient China, legal codes were inscribed onto bronze ceremonial vessels (鼎 ding) using sharp metal tools. These bronze legal inscriptions were public, durable, and authoritative — the visual origin of the East Asian concept of written law (成文法). The character preserves this material history in two strokes. Mainland simplified to 则.

Korean reading splits between "chik" and "jeuk" (a 破音字 tone-shifting character). "Chik" covers the rule sense: 法則 (beopchik, law / principle — including natural laws like 万有引力의 법칙 "law of universal gravitation"), 規則 (gyuchik, regulation), 原則 (wonchik, principle), 校則 (gyochik, school regulations). "Jeuk" covers the conjunction sense: 然則 (yeonjeuk, "in that case / then"). The two readings preserve a clean grammatical-vs-lexical distinction.

Mandarin zé, 2nd tone (simplified 则). 规则 (guīzé, rule), 原则 (yuánzé, principle), 法则 (fǎzé, law / principle), 然则 (ránzé, "but then / in that case" — classical Chinese conjunction). Modern Mandarin keeps 则 active in formal and academic register, plus the conjunctive use survives in Classical-style writing.

Japanese on-reading ソク (soku) — 規則 (kisoku, rule — central to Japanese organizational and educational life), 原則 (gensoku, principle — used in 原則として "as a rule / in principle"), 法則 (hōsoku, law — natural law / scientific principle), 校則 (kōsoku, school rules — strict regulations governing Japanese student life including hair length, sock height, and uniform compliance, often controversial in contemporary Japan). 規則 saturates Japanese institutional vocabulary; the kun-reading is essentially nonexistent in modern usage.

Memory aid: cowrie / valuables (貝) plus knife (刂) — laws engraved next to bronze vessels = the standard.