梆 (bāng) · watchman's rattle, wooden clapper

Meanings

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

Characters

梆

bāng

wooden clapper; knocking sound

Examples

HSK 4

梆梆梆，有人在敲门。

Bāng bāng bāng, yǒurén zài qiāomén.

Bang bang bang, someone is knocking at the door.

HSK 5

梆子戏是中国北方的地方剧种。

Bāngzi xì shì Zhōngguó běifāng de dìfāng jù zhǒng.

Bangzi opera is a regional theater form from northern China.

Tips

culture

梆子 refers to both a wooden clapper instrument and the style of Chinese opera that features it. 梆子戏 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 to 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.