篇 meaning and stroke order
Sheet; piece of writing; bound set of bamboo slips used for record keeping (old)
How to write 篇, stroke by stroke
15 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 篇
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- sheet
- piece of writing
- bound set of bamboo slips used for record keeping (old)
- classifier for written items: chapter, article
How 篇 is built
Ideographic (compound meaning) character. A bamboo ⺮ tablet 扁; 扁 also provides the pronunciation.
Radical: ⺮ (bamboo), shared by 149 characters on this site.
How to remember 篇
Picture bamboo ⺮ on top of a flat tablet 扁 (biǎn). In old China, writing was done on flat bamboo slips, so bamboo plus flat gives you a piece of writing, and 扁 also hints at the sound piān.
篇 is most often used as a measure word for articles, essays, and other complete pieces of writing. It also appears in words like 篇幅 (piānfú, length of a text) and 诗篇 (shīpiān, a poem). Example: 我写了一篇文章。(Wǒ xiě le yì piān wénzhāng.) I wrote an article.
Common mistake: Learners often mix up 篇 (piān) with 偏 (piān, slanted) and 遍 (biàn, a time, once through), which share the 扁 part. Remember that 篇 has the bamboo top because it is about writing, while 一遍 (yí biàn) counts how many times you do something, as in 读一遍 (dú yí biàn, read it once).
Common words with 篇
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
篇 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 篇
How many strokes are in 篇?
篇 is written with 15 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 篇 mean?
篇 (piān) means sheet; piece of writing; bound set of bamboo slips used for record keeping (old). A common word with it is 篇幅 (piānfú), meaning "length (of a piece of writing); space occupied on a printed page".
How do you pronounce 篇?
篇 is pronounced piān, in the first tone (high and level).
What is the radical of 篇?
The radical of 篇 is ⺮, which carries the idea of "bamboo". Dictionaries list 篇 under this radical.
Is 篇 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 篇 is part of the HSK 2 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard, and you are expected to write it by hand from HSK 2.
What is the difference between 篇 and 本 as measure words?
篇 counts a single piece of writing, like an essay, article, or report. 本 (běn) counts bound volumes such as books and magazines. So a magazine is 一本杂志, but one article inside it is 一篇文章.
Can 篇 be used for a page of a book?
In modern Chinese, a page is usually 页 (yè), not 篇. 篇 refers to a complete text or chapter. You may still see 篇 meaning a section or part of a longer work, as in a book title divided into parts.