骈 (pián): side by side; in parallel

Meanings

1 side by side; in parallel
2 (of a literary style) parallel; antithetical
3 surname Pian

Characters

骈

pián

side by side; paired

Examples

两匹马骈驾一辆车。

Liǎng pǐ mǎ pián jià yì liàng chē.

The two horses pulled the carriage side by side.

骈文讲究对偶工整。

Piánwén jiǎngjiu duì'ǒu gōngzhěng.

Parallel prose pairs sentences in matched, antithetical lines.

Tips

history

The root sense is two horses yoked to one cart, so the character generalizes to anything 'paired up, side by side'. In literature 骈文 ('parallel prose') is a refined style where clauses march in balanced, antithetical pairs. Also used as a surname, read pián.

Components

radical

马 mǎ

horse

The horse radical anchors the literal origin: two 马 harnessed abreast to the same carriage. From that image the character extends to 'in pairs, parallel'.

phonetic

并 bìng

to combine; side by side

Supplies the sound and a happy semantic echo: standalone 并 already means 'side by side, together', so it doubles as a hint that the whole character is about parallelism.