苹píng
Character evolution
苹
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简体
Simplified Chinese
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Shuowen
苹. The grass radical (艹) signals a plant, combined with 平 (flat), describing a duckweed—flat and floating on water. The oracle bone form shows the grass element above what became 平, depicting this low-growing aquatic herb. The flatness of the leaf floating on still water gave the character its phonetic-semantic construction.
Pinyin
píng· HSK 2