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篇piān

Character evolution

篇

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Simplified · Today

Shuowen

篇 (piān) combines the bamboo radical 竹 at the top, signifying its original reference to bamboo strips used as writing material, with the phonetic component 扁 at the bottom, which originally meant "flat" or "a flat object." In oracle bone and bronze inscriptions, the character depicted a bundle of bamboo slips tied together, representing a complete unit of text or a chapter. Thus, the character uses bamboo to indicate the medium and 扁 to suggest both the flat shape of the slips and the phonetic value, evolving to mean a piece of writing, a chapter, or an essay.

Pinyin

piān· HSK 2