Glyph Origins

Biang-Biang and Its Friends

Among students of Chinese, few haven’t heard of the famous biang-biang noodles, in which biáng is written with a rather hefty character:

In 2020, it was even added to Unicode: 𰻞 (trad.), 𰻝 (simp.).

Many people mistakenly believe that it was created not long ago and just for fun, but it’s not that simple. Across China, there are many similar characters, and they all have a history of at least 200 years.

Origin

Once upon a time in China, there was a secret society called Hongmen 洪門 (“Vast Family”) or Tiandihui 天地會 (“Heaven and Earth Society”), which at the end of the 18th century became seriously opposed to the ruling Qing 清 dynasty and wished to restore the Ming 明 dynasty. They created various secret symbols—some in the kaishu 楷書 style, resembling ordinary characters, and others resembling Taoist talismans. The early symbols were relatively simple:

It is worth noting that secret characters/symbols were often created by rearranging the components of a certain phrase:

So, one of these secret symbols was used in the kaixiangtang 開香堂 ceremony for initiating new members into the organization.

It can be broken down into the following components: 戀 (䜌 on top, 心 on the bottom), 汨 (on the left: 氵 as a line, 日 in cursive form), 戈 (on the right in cursive form), 馬 and two 長 (in the middle).

戀 means “to long for,” and 汨 is one of the secret characters used to write the name of the Ming dynasty; together they form 戀汨(明) “to long for the Ming.”

戈 means “spear; weapon,” 馬 “horse” in the slang of southeastern secret societies meant “people” (this is confirmed by various sources from that time), and 長 means “long; strong, superior”; together they form 戈長馬長, which can be understood as “strong weapons and sturdy horses/people, as well as long-devoted members of the organization.” This motive is clearly traceable in the records of the Hongmen society of that time.

The original symbol originates from the southeastern provinces of China, centered in Fujian 福建 province (where the Hongmen society emerged), then spreading to Sichuan 四川 (where there was another anti-Qing society, the Gelaohui 哥老會 (“Elder Brothers Society”)), and from these two centers, it gradually spread throughout China. Judging by the prevalence of similar symbols in Hebei 河北 province, it was also closely connected with their origin or spread.

Spread

This symbol and the characters derived from it were traditionally transmitted through rhyming songs that described their structure. For example, the first issue of the journal “Minsu” 民俗 (“Folklore”) from 1936 contains the following rhyme, which circulated in Jiangxi 江西 province, in the prefecture-level city of Nanchang 南昌 and the county-level city of Fengcheng 豐城 (Yuanzhou 袁州, modern prefecture-level city of Yichun 宜春):

一點一橫長，二字口郎當，兩邊絲繮紐，白馬在中央。你也長，我也長；心字腳，月字旁，打個金鉤掛衣裳。
One dot, one long horizontal stroke; the character 二 with an open mouth 口; on both sides are tied silk 絲 reins; a white horse 馬 is in the center. You are [here] for long 長, and I am [here] for long 長; the character 心 at the bottom, the character 月 to the side; hang clothes on a golden hook.

The character described here was interpreted in Nanchang as {閻} yán from {閻王} “King of Hell,” and in Fengcheng as {猛} měng “fierce.” Instead of 白馬在中央 “a white horse is in the center,” variants existed in the same regions such as 當中馬大王 “in the center is a horse king” and 當中馬濺漿 “in the center a horse splashes.”

The vagueness of these songs (since the society was, after all, secret), their modification (errors in phrasing, loss of phrases, substitution of phrases for the sake of rhyme, the influence of local languages/dialects, etc.), and errors in recording them (complication of elements, distortion of elements, loss of elements, use of different forms, etc.) naturally led to changes in the characters in different regions. It’s worth remembering that they were mainly transmitted by people with a low level of education.

As an example of the vagueness of the songs, consider the following, from which five different characters can be assembled:

一點一橫長，二字口言旁。兩邊絲繞繞，中間馬兒郎。你也長，我也長，心字底，月字旁。搭根竿竿曬衣裳，撿個石頭撂過牆。
One dot, one long horizontal stroke; the character 二 and a mouth 口 [give] the component 言. On both sides, silk 絲 is wound; in the middle is a colt 馬. You are [here] for long 長, and I am [here] for long 長; the character 心 at the bottom, the character 月 to the side. Set up a pole to dry clothes; pick up a stone and throw it over the wall.

If you replace 兩邊絲繞繞 “on both sides, silk is wound” with 左邊絞，右邊絞 “a skein on the left, a skein on the right” (found in other songs), you can get the following characters:

As an example of an element being added and of dialectal influence, here is the following song:

一點一橫長，二字口言旁。絲繞對絲繞，長對長，中間一個馬兒郎。心在底，月在旁，留個勾勾照月亮。
One dot, one long horizontal stroke; the character 二 and a mouth 口 [give] the component 言. A silk 絲 winding opposing a silk winding; long 長 opposing long 長; in the middle there is a single colt 馬. The character 心 is at the bottom, the character 月 is to the side; leave a hook to be illuminated by the moon.

It describes the form with one 戈, but 留 liú “to leave” and 兩 liǎng “two” can sound similar, which led to the appearance of a form with two 戈 (later, related songs feature 金鉤銀鉤 “a golden hook and a silver hook”):

As an example of an element being lost, consider the following song:

一點不如一橫長，二橫不如口字方，兩邊掛着金絲鳥，中間端坐車羅王，左也長，右也長，心在底，戈在旁，遇見歹人就拿槍。
One dot, not as long as a horizontal stroke; two horizontal strokes, not as square as the character 口; on both sides hang birds with golden feathers 絲; in the middle, the king of nets sits in a cart 車; and long 長 on the left, and long 長 on the right; a heart 心 at the bottom, a spear 戈 to the side; upon meeting a bad person, immediately grab a spear.

Here, the phrase 遇見歹人就拿槍 “Upon meeting a bad person, immediately grab a spear” alludes to the component 戈 “spear,” so 戈在旁 “a spear to the side” is redundant—originally, it should have been 月在旁 “a moon to the side.” Because the person misremembered the song, the 月 component simply disappeared from the character.

In the following song, the 長 components were lost:

一點一筆長，二字口言旁，兩邊絲繞繞，中間一個馬兒郎，心在底，月在旁，打把金鉤掛衣裳，撿個石頭撂過牆。
One dot, one long stroke; the character 二 and a mouth 口 [give] the component 言; on both sides, silk 絲 is wound; in the middle, a single colt 馬; the character 心 at the bottom, the character 月 to the side; hang clothes on a golden hook; pick up a stone and throw it over the wall.

The rearrangement of elements also occurs. For example, in the following song, 馬 and 長 have swapped places:

二絲夾一言，二馬夾一長。一心在底坐，騎刀劈太陽。
Two threads 絲 squeeze one word 言; two horses 馬 squeeze one long 長. A single heart 心 sits at the bottom; taking a knife, slice the sun.

In another song, the positions of 長馬長 (or rather 馬長馬) and 䜌 were switched:

月字旁，心字底。馬長馬，糸長糸。勾上掛衣裳，一點蹦到山頂上。
The character 月 to the side, the character 心 at the bottom. A horse 馬, a long 長 horse 馬; a thread 糸, a long 長 thread 糸. Hang clothes on a hook; take a (one dot) jump to the mountaintop.

All in all, it can be said that the variation was extremely high. Next, we will move on to directly examining and describing these variants.

But before that, here are the songs for our beloved biang character:

一點頂破天，黃河兩頭彎。八字張大口，言字往裏走。你一扭，我一扭。你一長，我一長，中間坐着馬大王。心字底，月字旁，一個釘釘掛衣裳，坐個車車到咸陽。
A dot on top breaks through the sky; the Yellow River bends on both sides. The character 八 opens its mouth 口 wide; the character 言 walks inside. You twist, I twist. You grow 長, I grow 長; in the middle sits the horse 馬 king. The character 心 at the bottom, the character 月 to the side; hang clothes on a nail; ride in a cart to Xianyang.

As you can see, it clearly lists 八, 言 (and the 口 within it), two 長, 馬, 心, and 月. The component 宀 is alluded to here by “a dot” and “the bends of the Yellow River,” and the 幺 components by “to twist.” The component 刂(刀) “knife” replaces the synonymous 戈, which is conveyed through “a nail” (compare with the “hooks” in previous songs).

Because of the “nail,” you can even find a form like this with 丁 on the right:

Another version of the song:

一點飛上天，河水流兩邊。八字大張口，言字往進走。你家幺，我家幺。你家長，我家長，當中夾個馬大王。心襯底，月照光，留個勾搭掛麻糖。推上車車逛咸陽。
A dot flies up to the sky; the river flows on both sides. The character 八 opens its mouth 口 wide; the character 言 walks inside. The youngest 幺 of your family, the youngest 幺 of my family. The eldest 長 in your family, the eldest 長 in my family; squeezed between [them] is a horse 馬 king. The heart 心 is at the base, the moon 月 shines; leave a hook to hang malt candy. Ride around Xianyang in a cart.

Several others exist, but it would be superfluous to include them here.

It should be noted that, based on these songs, the biang character should actually have the 戈 component:

The fact that they are associated with the modern form with 刂 is a result of its wide dissemination. Today, the secret symbols have lost their original meanings and functions, so the characters themselves spread along with their songs. This is unlike the old days, when the song was the primary source from which the character was reconstructed (and when a phrase like “hang clothes on a nail” is used, the element hidden behind it can be interpreted ambiguously).

When a character changes, new songs can appear. For example, here is a song for the variant of biang with 刂:

一點飛上天，黃河兩頭彎。八字大張口，言字走進來。左一紐，右一紐。左一長，右一長，中間來個馬大王。心字底，月字旁。兩個賊娃立在旁，坐上車車走四方。
A dot flies in the heavens; the Yellow River bends on both sides. The character 八 opens its mouth 口 wide; the character 言 walks inside. You twist, I twist. You grow 長, I grow 長; in the middle came a horse 馬 king. The character 心 at the bottom, the character 月 to the side. Two bandits stand at the side; ride in a cart to all four corners.

Component Variations

In this section, for the sake of brevity, I will not include the songs on which they are based. Lists of the songs can be found in the works cited at the end of the article.

Of course, not all possible variants are listed here (although many characters are now known, the list is clearly not exhaustive), but the main principles become clear.

The Meanings of These Characters

Although this symbol was initially used for initiation into the society, it and all its derivatives later became a sign of belonging to Hongmen. All modern uses appeared later.

The word {賊} zéi “bandit” was most likely the very first meaning assigned to this character; this was done by common people to insult members of the Hongmen society (after all, many members of the society engaged in robbery, banditry, and fraud). After this, the symbol became an ordinary character circulating in Chinese society.

With the further spread of the characters, the influence of regional languages/dialects and the low literacy level of the people explaining these characters to each other became increasingly apparent. For example, one such character writes {圾} jī from {垃圾} “garbage,” and another—{戒} jiè “to be wary; to warn.” The reason for this is the simple phonetic similarity of the local pronunciations of {圾} and {戒} with the original {賊}.

Also, the morpheme {兵} bīng “soldier” was likely one of the first to be assigned, since in times of chaos, soldiers’ behavior was sometimes not very different from that of bandits (on the other hand, the society’s members themselves could have assigned this meaning to the characters to be equated with soldiers). All modern pronunciations like pā, piǎ, páng, and of course biáng derive from a phonetic borrowing of {兵}.

In the Wutongqiao 五通橋 district (Leshan 樂山 prefecture-level city, Sichuan 四川 province), the character 𰻞 is still used to write two morphemes at once: biǎng “bam (onomatopoeia for the collision of two objects)” and zui “thievish, bandit-like (referring to appearance).”

The aforementioned uses {閻} yán (from {閻王} “King of Hell”) and {猛} měng “fierce” are also contrasted as having negative and positive meanings, which points to the struggle between the Hongmen society and the authorities.

Some Pictures of Various Forms

Main Sources

The first source contains various images of a wide variety of characters of this type. The third contains a large table of such characters with their readings, meanings, and the sources in which they are mentioned; it also provides many songs from a wide variety of sources.