片
disk; sheet; thin piece; flake; a slice; film; TV play; to slice; to carve thin; partial; incomplete; one-sided; used with numeral 一[yi1]: classifier for scenario, scene, feeling, atmosphere, sound etc; Kangxi radical 91
Closest English meanings
piece·slice·sheet·film
The Calligrapher — Yú Shìnán 虞世南
Tang court calligrapher revered for refined, restrained regular script.
Tang calligrapher (558–638), master of regular script — Tang master of quiet, inward regular script and teacher to the imperial academy. Tang dynasty
Cultural Story
片 is a slice or sheet, originally half of a split tree-trunk, a 木 cut down the middle. The Shangshu measures land in 片; painters laid ink on 片 of silk. A 片段 of a lost poem survives on bamboo slips, and 叶片 leaf-blades turn in the wind. The char is the thin, flat piece, of wood, of text, of the world cut small enough to be held.
Common words & phrases
- 照片 photo · photograph
- 卡片 card · index card
- 片段 fragment · extract
- 名片 business card · name card
- 叶片 leaf blade · blade
Read the story behind the character
We snap a 照片 photo of the trip, hand over a 名片 business card at the meeting, and flip a 卡片 card on a birthday. A movie shows just one 片段 fragment of the novel, and botany class labels the 叶片 leaf blade. From the phone gallery to the wedding invite, 片 is the flat little piece of everything we keep.
Own this character
Purchase delivers the original SVG of this glyph, brushed by Yú Shìnán 虞世南, ready to place on skin, paper, or screen.