篇
piān · HSK 2
piece of writing
📄 竹 bamboo + 扁 flat = flat bamboo strip = a written piece
篇 originally meant a flat bamboo slip used for writing; now it counts written pieces like essays, articles, and chapters. Sounds like piān, related to 偏 (slanted) sharing the 扁 phonetic.
篇 — bamboo radical 竹 (⺮) + 扁 biǎn (phonetic)
篇 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The bamboo top (⺮) points to bamboo strips, the writing material of early China, while 扁 supplies the sound. It originally meant a bundle of inscribed bamboo slips tied together, and from there came to mean a chapter, essay, or written piece.