爿 (pán): measure word for shops, factori…

Meanings

1 measure word for shops, factories, or plots of land
2 a split piece of wood or bamboo (literary)
3 (also Kangxi #90 'split wood' radical, classically read qiáng)

Characters

爿

pán

split plank; classifier for shops

Examples

街口开了一爿小店。

Jiēkǒu kāi le yī pán xiǎodiàn.

A small shop has opened at the street corner.

他家有一爿水田。

Tājiā yǒu yī pán shuǐtián.

His family owns one plot of paddy field.

Tips

register

爿 as a measure word is regional and literary, common in Wu-area writers (e.g. Mao Dun) and in older novels. In standard Mandarin you would normally say 一家小店 or 一块田 instead.

history

As a radical it tags characters involving planks or beds (床 originally written 牀 keeps it on the left).

Components

pictograph

爿 pán

split wood; plank

爿 depicts a piece of wood split lengthways down the middle — it is the mirror image of 片 (the other half). Used as a measure word for shops and businesses (一爿水果店), and as a radical in characters like 床, 状.

Radical

Split Wood (Left) Kangxi #90

Tags characters that originally referred to wooden boards, beds, or plank-shaped objects. Pairs with 片 (Kangxi 91) as its mirror image — left half versus right half of a split log. Mostly relevant for traditional forms; in simplified Chinese many of its compounds (e.g. 牀→床) have moved to other radicals.