How to Write 豳 (bīn) — Meaning “Bin (ancient place name)”

Picture a pig (豕) climbing a mountain (山) to reach the ancient land of Bin, with the horizontal stroke on top acting like a flag marking the destination. This visual connects the components to the historical place name.

Pay attention to the stroke order: write the left radical 豕 first (horizontal, left-falling, hook, then inner strokes), then the right side: a horizontal line on top of 山. A common mistake is making the right side look like just 山 without the top horizontal line, or writing the hook on 豕 too short.

豳 has a 豕 radical on the left and a right side with 山 plus a horizontal line. 豫 has the radical 予 (not 豕) and means 'joy' or refers to Henan province. 豱 also has 豕 but the right side is 昷 (sun over bowl) and means a type of pig.

豳 is rarely used in daily life; it appears mainly in historical texts like the Classic of Poetry's 'Odes of Bin' (豳风) or ancient place names such as 豳州. It carries cultural significance as a reference to early Zhou dynasty life and poetry.

Common words containing 豳 include: 豳风 (bīn fēng) — Odes of Bin (from the Classic of Poetry); 豳州 (bīn zhōu) — Binzhou (ancient prefecture); 豳土 (bīn tǔ) — The land of Bin.