兵 (bīng): soldier; troops

Measure Word

一名兵 míng

Meanings

1 soldier; troops
2 military; arms; weapon
3 pawn (in Chinese chess)

Characters

兵

bīng

soldier; weapon

Originally depicted two hands holding a weapon — the meaning shifted from "weapon" to "soldier who carries weapons."

Examples

他当了三年兵。

Tā dāng le sānnián bīng.

He served as a soldier for three years.

兵马俑是中国最有名的古迹之一。

Bīngmǎyǒng shì Zhōngguó zuì yǒumíng de gǔjì zhīyī.

The Terracotta Warriors are one of China's most famous historical sites.

Tips

culture

当兵 means to serve in the military. In Chinese chess (象棋), 兵 is the pawn piece on the red side (the black side's pawn is called 卒).

Components

radical

八 bā

eight; split

Bottom 八 — also 兵's indexing radical. Originally a divider/splitter shape, here graphically the two hands raising the weapon above. The combined picture is unmistakable: a pair of hands hoisting a battle-axe, the literal portrait of a soldier. Same two-leg base appears in 共, 典, 兴.

semantic

丘 qiū

hill; mound

Top 丘 — historically a stylized graphic of a long-handled axe (斤) being held; only later did 丘 take on its modern 'hill' meaning as a separate character. In 兵 it preserves the original weapon image — soldiers were defined by the weapons they bore. Pure semantic, not phonetic.