Several parts combine into one character.

令 is a compound ideograph showing a hierarchy in action: 亼 (a hat / canopy) on top representing an authority figure, with 卩 (a kneeling person) at the bottom receiving the command. The composite reads as "an order transmitted from above to one who kneels below" = command, decree, order. Few characters convey political hierarchy as economically as this five-stroke depiction.

Korean reading "ryeong" (or "yeong" word-initially per phonotactic rules). Two semantic clusters: command and honorific. Command sense: 命令 (myeongnyeong, command), 法令 (beomnyeong, law / decree), 指令 (jiryeong, directive / orders — used in military and corporate contexts), 令狀 (yeongjang, warrant — legal document authorizing arrest or search). Honorific sense: 令息 (yeongsik, "your honored son" — formal Chinese-style address to refer to someone's son), 令夫人 (yeongbuin, "your honored wife / wife of an esteemed person" — politicized in Korea where 영부인 became the conventional term for the South Korean president's spouse). The honorific use survives in formal correspondence.

Mandarin lìng, 4th tone. 命令 (mìnglìng, command), 法令 (fǎlìng, law / decree), 下令 (xiàlìng, "to issue an order"). And distinctively in Mandarin grammar: 令 functions as a causative verb meaning "to cause / make someone do something." 令人感动 (lìngrén gǎndòng, "to cause people to be moved" = moving / touching), 令人惊叹 (lìngrén jīngtàn, "to make people exclaim in wonder" = astonishing). The 令人~ pattern is a productive grammatical construction generating emotional descriptors.

Japanese on-reading レイ (rei) — 命令 (meirei, command), 法令 (hōrei, laws and ordinances), 指令 (shirei, directive). Alternative on-reading リョウ (ryō) appears in 律令 (ritsuryō, "criminal-and-civil code" — the 7th-8th century Tang-derived legal system that organized the Japanese imperial state during the Nara period). And most consequentially: in 2019, Japan inaugurated a new imperial era named 令和 (Reiwa, "beautiful harmony"), succeeding the Heisei era. The character 令 was deliberately chosen for its suggestion of "good order / auspicious propriety," and the era name 令和 was the first in Japanese history to be drawn from a Japanese rather than Chinese classical text — specifically the Manyōshū. Reiwa marks both continuity and a subtle assertion of Japanese cultural autonomy.

Memory aid: an authority figure (亼) commanding a kneeling subordinate (卩) — the very picture of an order being given.