Pianpang

Pianpangs (Chinese: 偏旁; pinyin: piānpáng; lit. 'side side') are components in Chinese character internal structures. A compound character is normally divided into two pianpangs according to their relationship in sounds and meanings. Originally, the left side component of the character was called pian, and the right side pang. Nowadays, it is customary to refer to the left and right, upper and lower, outer and inner parts of compound characters as pianpangs.^[1][2]

Radicals (部首) are indexing components of Chinese characters, and are usually pianpangs representing the meanings of the characters.^[3]

Classification

There are three categories of pianpangs in modern Chinese characters:^[4][5]

1. A component related to (or representing) the meaning of the character is a semantic pianpang (形旁, 義旁 or 意符). For example: component "扌" (hand) in characters "推" (push) and "拉" (pull), and "心" (heart) in "思" (think) and "忠" (loyal).
2. A component related to the pronunciation of the character is a phonetic pianpang (聲旁, 音旁 or 音符).^[a] For example, "包" (bāo) in "抱" (bào) and "苞" (bāo).
3. A component related to neither the meaning nor the pronunciation of the character is a pure sign (or form) pianpang ( 記號, 符號). For example: "多" (duō, a lot) in "移" (yí, move), and "又" (yòu, again, also) in "鸡" ( jī, chicken).

Combinations

In pianpang analysis, modern Chinese compound characters are formed by the following combinations.

Semantic-semantic characters (表意字; biǎoyìzì), or Compound ideographs (会意字; 會意字; huìyìzì, 'joined meaning character'), combine two or more semantic pianpangs to indicate the meaning of the character.^[6] For example,

• 拿 (take): 合 (close) 手 (hands) together to take;
• 掰 (break apart): 分 (separate) with two 手 (hands);
• 泪 (tears): 氵 (water) from 目 (eyes).

Phonetic-phonetic characters (表音字; biǎoyīnzì) are composed of phonetic pianpangs.^[7] For example,

• 新 was originally a semantic-phonetic character, but its modern meaning of "new" has nothing to do with the original semantic component of 斤 (meaning "0.5kg" in modern Chinese), though the sounds are similar. In this way, 新 (sounds "xīn") then has two phonetic components: 亲 (qīn) and 斤 (jīn).
• Vietname Chinese character 𢁋 (blăng;^[b] 'Moon') was created as a compound of 巴 (ba) and 陵 (lăng).^[8]

Form-form characters (记号字; 記號字; jìhàozì) are composed of pure form pianpangs, which neither represent the sound nor the meaning of the characters.^[9] For example:

• 至 (to): in oracle bones script the character is like an arrow shooting to the ground. According to the current glyph, the original meaning can no longer be seen, let alone the modern meaning of the word.
• 鹿 (deer): The oracle form resembled a deer, which is no longer true for the modern character.

Semantic-phonetic characters (形声字; 形聲字; xíngshēngzì) consist of semantic and phonetic components.^[10][11] For example:

• 肝 (sound: gān, meaning: liver; semantic pianpang 月 meat; phonetic pianpang 干 gān);
• 江 (river, semantic 氵, phonetic 工);
• 河 (river, semantic 氵, phonetic: 可).

Semantic-form characters (义记字; 義記字; yìjìzì) are composed of semantic components and pure form components.^[12] Many of these characters were originally semantic-phonetic characters. Due to subsequent changes in the shape or pronunciation of the phonetic components or the characters, the phonetic components could not effectively represent the pronunciation of the character and became pure form. For example:^[13]

• 布 (bù, cloth): used to have semantic 巾 (scarf) and phonetic 父 (fù), the phonetic component is no longer 父.
• 急 (jí, urgent): used to have semantic 心 (heart) and phonetic 及 (jí). Now the upper component no longer looks like 及.
• 鸡 (jī, chicken), is a 鸟 (bird), but not read as 又 (yòu).

Phonetic-form characters (音记字; 音記字; yīnjìzì) are composed of phonetic components and pure form components.^[14] They mostly came from ancient semantic-phonetic characters, where the semantic components lost their functions and became pure form. For example,^[15]

• 球 (qiú, ball): Originally refers to a kind of beautiful jade, with semantic component 王 (玉, jade). Later, it was borrowed to represent a ball, and then extended to any spherical object, and 王 (jade) became a pure form component, while 求 (qiú) remains a phonetic component.
• 笨 (bèn, stupid): Originally refers to the inner white layer of bamboo, with semantic component 竹 (bamboo) and phonetic 本 (běn). Later, the character was borrowed by sound to mean 'stupid', an adjective not related to bamboo.
• 华 (huá, magnificent): This is a simplified character with phonetic 化 and pure form component 十.

Positions

Pianpangs appear in different positions of Chinese characters, including:^[16][17]

1. Left meaning (semantic) and right sound (phonetic), such as
   肝 (gān, liver): semantic pianpang 月 (meat), phonetic pianpang 干 (gān);
   惊 (jīng, fear): semantic 心 (heart), phonetic 京 (jīng);
   湖 (hú, lake): semantic 氵 (water), phonetic 胡 (hú).
2. Right meaning and left sound, such as
   鵡 (wǔ, parrot): semantic 鳥 (bird), phonetic 武 (wǔ);
   甥 (shēng, nephew): semantic 男 (male), phonetic 生 (shēng);
   雌 (cí, female): semantic 隹 (bird), phonetic 此 (cǐ);
3. Upper meaning and lower sound, such as
   霖 (lín, rain), semantic 雨 (rain), phonetic 林 (lín);
   茅 (máo, cogongrass), semantic 艹 (grass), phonetic 矛 (máo);
   竿 (gān, pole), semantic 竹 (banboo), phonetic 干 (gān).
4. Lower meaning and upper sound, such as
   盂 (yú, bowl), semantic 皿 (bowl), phonetic 于 (yú);
   岱 (dài, Mount Tai), semantic 山 (mountain), phonetic 代 (dài);
   鯊 (shā, shark), semantic 鱼 (fish), phonetic 鲨 (shā).
5. Outer meaning and inner sounds, such as
   園 (yuán, garden), semantic 囗 (frame), phonetic 袁 (yuán);
   衷 (zhōng, sincere, inner feeling), semantic 衣 (clothes (inside)), phonetic 中 (zhōng);
   痒 (yǎng, itchy), semantic 疒 (ill), phonetic 羊 (yáng).
6. Inner meaning and outer sound, such as
   辮 (biàn, braid), semantic 糸 (thread), phonetic 辡 (biàn);
   悶 (mèn, dull), semantic 心 (heart), phonetic 門 (mén);
   摹 (mó, imitation), semantic 手 (hand), phonetic 莫 (mò).
7. Phonetic corner, such as
   旗 (qí, flag), phonetic 其 (qí);
   徒 (tú, on foot), semantic 辵 (foot), phonetic 土 (tǔ).
8. Semantic corner, such as
   疆 (jiāng, border), semantic 土, phonetic 彊 (jiàng);
   修 (xiū, repair), semantic 彡 (beard), phonetic 攸 (yōu).

Some variant characters have the same pianpangs arranged in different ways. For example,^[18]

• 够夠 (gòu, sufficient);
• 鵝䳘 (é, goose);
• 拿㧱 (ná, take);
• 蟹蠏 (xiè, crab);
• 群羣 (qún, group);
• 翄翅 (chì, wings);
• 啓啟 (qǐ, open).

Relationship with radicals and components

Pianpangs and radicals are components. The three concepts of pianpangs (偏旁), radicals (部首) and components (部件) often get confused among Chinese language learners.^[3][19]

Pianpangs are internal structural components. A compound character is normally divided into two pianpangs in internal structure, but only has one radical, usually the semantic pianpang. For example, character 江 is decomposed into pianpang 氵 and 工, where semantic 氵(水, water) is the radical.^[4]

Radicals are indexing components used for sorting and retrieving Chinese characters. According to the glyph structure of Chinese characters, the common components of a group of characters are selected as their radical. For example, "江河溪流海洋涌..." share radical 水.^[20]

In addition to radicals and pianpangs, a character may have other components. For example, character 福 is divided into pianpangs 示 and 畐, where semantic 示 is the radical. And 畐 can be further decomposed into three primitive components 一, 口 and 田 in Chinese character external structures.^[21]

See also

• Chinese character components
• Chinese character structures
• Chinese character classification

Notes

1. Su believes that at least the initials and finals should be the same.^[4]
2. This is the Middle Vietnamese pronunciation; the word is pronounced in modern Vietnamese as trăng.