梆 (bāng): watchman's rattle

Meanings

1 watchman's rattle
2 wooden clapper
3 sound of knocking on wood

Characters

梆

bāng

wooden clapper; knocking sound

Examples

梆梆梆，有人在敲门。

Bāng bāng bāng, yǒurén zài qiāomén.

Bang bang bang, someone is knocking at the door.

梆子戏是中国北方的地方剧种。

Bāng zi xì shì Zhōngguó běifāng de dìfāng jù zhǒng.

Bangzi opera is a regional theater form from northern China.

Tips

culture

梆子 (bāngzi) refers to both a wooden clapper instrument and the style of Chinese opera that features it. 梆子戏 (bāngzixì) is a major category of northern Chinese opera, distinct from 京剧.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left-side tree radical — pictograph of a trunk with branches above and roots below. The indexing radical: 梆 is a wooden watchman's clapper, an instrument carved from a single block. Same wooden-object family: 板 board, 桶 bucket, 棍 stick, 棒 pole. The 'bāng' sound is the actual onomatopoeia of the clapper striking.

phonetic

邦 bāng

state; nation

Right side 邦 supplies the sound exactly: bāng → bāng, identical pinyin and tone. 邦 depicts a sapling 丰 + city radical 阝 — a settled feudal state. As phonetic it also doubles as the onomatopoeia 梆梆 'bang-bang,' the hollow knock of the night watchman. Same phonetic family: 帮 to help, 绑 to tie up.