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 yeongbu-in 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.