(biān): whip or lash, to flog, to whip

(biān) is a Chinese character meaning “whip or lash.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and 便 (phonetic). It ranks #2194 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, is a compound character. Its radical form (leather) appears in many related characters such as (xié, shoe), (, animal hide), (xuē, boots).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. whip or lash
  2. to flog
  3. to whip

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticThis character is a compound form.

Decomposition: ⿰革便 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
biān ziwhip
biān dǎto whip
biān pàofirecrackers
biān cèto spur on
pí biānlash
biān chīto flog
jiào biānteacher's pointer
yáng biānto whip on
biān cháng mò jílit. the whip cannot reach (idiom)
biān máoflagellum
biān tàto lash
kuài mǎ jiā biānto spur the horse to full speed (idiom)
tóu biān duàn liúarms enough to stem the stream (idiom)
sān jié biānthree-section staff (old-style weapon)
biān pì rù lǐpenetrated
29
Total compounds
48
As first character
41
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 48 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 10 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

xíng
0.4814,260 co-occurrences
máo
0.4583,318 co-occurrences
pào
0.4572,696 co-occurrences
0.4336,942 co-occurrences
dǎng
0.3952,928 co-occurrences
shuǎi
0.392114 co-occurrences
chóng
0.389450 co-occurrences
chuí
0.38036 co-occurrences
zhàng
0.378246 co-occurrences
chōu
0.374546 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

biānpìrùlǐHSK 7+

to be penetrating

phrase
biānchángmòjíHSK 7+

beyond one's influence; too far to be able to help

phrase
juémùbiānshīHSK 7+

to be extremely evil; to have an extremely deep grudge

phrase
kuàimǎjiābiānHSK 7+

to whip the horse to an even swifter speed; to go even faster; to accelerate the speed

phrase
tóu biān duàn liúHSK 7+

arms enough to stem the stream (idiom); formidable army

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解字的来源,有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè biān zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character for "whip" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

中時新聞網Mar 2026

婚宴敬酒起口角冲突 4男挺友放炮寻仇遭警逮

hūn yàn jìng jiǔ qǐ kǒu jiǎo chōng tū 4 nán tǐng yǒu fàng biān pào xún qiú zāo jǐng dǎi

A dispute broke out during a wedding toast; four men set off firecrackers in retaliation and were arrested by police

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

炮放成爆震性耳聋 专家提醒:一次巨响就能...

fàng biān pào fàng chéng bào zhèn xìng ěr lóng zhuān jiā tí xǐng : yī cì jù xiǎng jiù néng . . .

Firecrackers are set off as knocking deafness Experts remind: A loud noise can...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

她腹部胀气 原来横结肠有

tā fù bù zhàng qì yuán lái héng jié cháng yǒu biān chóng

She had bloating in her abdomen and it turned out that there were whipworms in her transverse colon

BastillepostFeb 2026

十五五开局之年 港沪大湾区策马扬 互补共振

shí wǔ wǔ kāi jú zhī nián gǎng hù dà wān qū cè mǎ yáng biān hù bǔ gòng zhèn

In the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Greater Bay Area rode horses and whipped each other to complement each other

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

热解读|“跃马扬”开新局

rè jiě dòu yuè mǎ yáng biān kāi xīn jú

Hot Interpretation|" "Prancing horses and whips" to open a new game

Tatoeba

在新加坡,刑是处置犯人的方法之一。

Zài Xīnjiāpō, biān xíng shì chǔzhì fànrén de fāngfǎ zhīyī.

In Singapore, one way to punish a criminal is to whip him or her.

Tatoeba

杰西策小毛驴前进。

Jiéxī biāncè xiǎo máolǘ qiánjìn.

Jessie urged the little donkey forward.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the leather radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced biān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 鞭 (biān) mean in Chinese?
鞭 (biān) primarily means "whip or lash." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2194 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 鞭 have?
鞭 is written with 18 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 鞭?
The radical associated with 鞭 is 革 (leather). This radical appears in many characters related to leather.
What are the components of 鞭?
鞭 is composed of: 革 (semantic), 便 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰革便 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 鞭?
Common words with 鞭 include: 鞭子 (biān zi, "whip"); 鞭打 (biān dǎ, "to whip"); 鞭炮 (biān pào, "firecrackers"); 鞭策 (biān cè, "to spur on"); 皮鞭 (pí biān, "lash"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 鞭 (biān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation biān: 边 (side), 编 (to edit, to compile), 贬 (to diminish), 变 (to change), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 鞭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 鞭 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.